Sticker shock, border delays sour hopes for Canadian travel boom

Tourism spending in Canada remains 34% below 2019 levels despite strong gains over the last year, official data shows. With most COVID-19 restrictions lifted, the Canadian travel industry had hoped 2022 would be the year when domestic tourism at least returned to normal volumes.

“At this point it looks like we could get there by the end of 2023, but we just don’t know,” said Potter. “At the big border crossings in southern Ontario, they’d normally see 50 motor coaches a weekend and now they’re averaging about two,” said Potter, adding a full recovery of foreign visitors is not expected before 2025.While Canada has eased its pandemic restrictions, it still requires foreign visitors be fully vaccinated and all travelers entering the country must use a public health app to upload vaccination documents and personal data.

“If what people are hearing from Canada is that the system is broken, they’ll simply go somewhere else where things are functioning better,” said Beatty. “It hasn’t shown signs of deteriorating yet, near term,” said Nathan Janzen, a senior economist at RBC. “But it’s stopped growing at a fast pace.”Article content

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