Despite an exchange rate that only pays 70 Canadian cents on every US dollar, Canadians will still travel to the US twice as much as Americans heading north to Canada.
That declaration comes from a study conducted by the Toronto-Dominion Bank in which economist Derek Burleton analyzed travel between the two countries. The study was focused on how the weak Canadian dollar is effecting travel between the world’s longest undefended international border.
Last year, as most Canadians know quite well, the loonie lost 16 percent of its value last year compared to the US dollar. The Toronto-Dominion Bank believes this figure should remain stable for most of this year, 2016. Therefore, all of the study’s conclusions are based on this assumption.
Burleton found that the weaker Canadian dollar has indeed persuaded Americans to head north. Total visits by Americans to Canada went up by 1.6 percent during the first 11 months of 2015, compared to the same period the year before.
“American visits to Canada are finally picking up,” Burleton said. “With a similar momentum likely to carry over in 2016, American spending in Canada is poised to rise to $9.6 billion Canadian,” Burleton said, “the highest level in over a decade.”
Canadians also will spend much more in the USA than Americans will in Canada.
“Canadian visits south will continue to overshadow American visits north, and Canadians are expected to spend in the U.S. at least double the aggregate amount that Americans will spend in Canada,” Burleton noted.