More than half of Canadians plan to stay home this summer, survey says

The Conference Board of Canada has released a new set of findings that shows just how much the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted Canadians' summer travel plans.

A typical weekend in late March sees about 40,000 Americans enter Canada by land. On March 29th of this year, that number fell to only 531.

“Our survey shows that travellers are paying attention to government’s guidelines and are staying home,” says Todd Crawford, associate director, economic forecasting, The Conference Board of Canada.  “When it comes to domestic travel, we expect travel intentions should return to somewhat normal in April 2021. Whereas, international travel should remain at below-normal levels until December 2021.”

A sample of the findings are as follows: 

• Our spring survey typically reveals that around 75–80 per cent of Canadians are planning a leisure trip. This year, only 45 per cent are.
• Most travellers have delayed or cancelled a trip: 58 per cent of people surveyed in March and 73 per cent who responded in April either delayed or cancelled their trip this summer.
• More Canadian travellers plan to stay in Canada this year: 66 per cent of travellers are planning domestic trips.

Two surveys were conducted after the Government of Canada closed the borders to international travellers. The first closed on March 23rd with 1,500 respondents; the second, April 16th with a total of 2,000 respondents.

The full report can be found here.

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