VANCOUVER — Destination Canada’s (DC) latest Tourism Snapshot indicates year-over-year declines in international tourist arrivals to Canada for March 2019, falling 4.4 per cent from 2018 and resulting in a 1.1-per-cent contraction for Q1 2019.
However, total arrivals in the first quarter of 2019 were the second-highest on record, following the peak achieved in 2018. The timing of the Easter holiday period is also noted as causing expected contractions, as it fell in late March in 2018 and late April this year.
The most notable expected contractions were seen from the U.K. (down 22 per cent), Germany (down 20.9 per cent), Mexico (down 16.7 per cent) and the U.S. (down 2.7 per cent).
Arrivals from China for Q1 remained positive (up 0.5 per cent), in spite of a slip in March 2019 (down 1.5 per cent).
Overnight arrivals from India (up 16.3 per cent) and France (up 6.2 per cent) reached record highs for the month. Australia also saw year-over-year increases (up 2.7 per cent) and arrivals from all three markets saw gains for the quarter.
Year-over-year comparison of national hotel indicators also revealed declines. Occupancy for the month fell 1.3 percentage points, while RevPAR and ADR were down 0.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.
The complete report is available here.
