Urban Futures has some dismal news in its latest report on Travel and Tourism in B.C.:
Over the past 14 years, annual inbound travel volume to Canada from the United States has declined by 48 percent, from 48 million trips in 1998 to 25 million in 2011.
The number of US entries to BC peaked in 2000, when over seven millions American travellers entered Canada through BC. Following the largest year-over-year decline in American travel to BC (12 percent between 2007-2008), the number of US travellers entering BC has since declined at a slower pace (with there actually being a 1.8 percent increase between 2009-2010).
Here’s the kicker:
… it is also important to consider the mode split of US travel to BC, which has shifted considerably over time. For example, the share of US visitors travelling to BC by automobile fell from 71 percent of all trips in 1998 to 62 percent by 2011. This was driven by a 39 percent decline in total automobile travel to the province from the US, from 4.6 million trips in 1998 to only 2.8 million by 2011.
In contrast, while also experiencing a decline (from 945,000 to 819,000 trips over the same period), the share of entries via airplane increased from 15 percent to 18 percent, while all other modes—which includes ship, bus, and rail—declined by five percent between 1998 and 2011 and accounted for 20 percent of the total volume of US travellers entering BC in 2011, up from 15 percent in 1998.
Increasingly it’s apparent: those who still think that automobile accessibility is the key to economic prosperity have hitched their wagon to the wrong star.
This must be heavily driven by the exchange rate change. Ten years ago one dollar was worth 64 US Cents. Would think that would impact the more casual day trippers more.
Plus the draconian Identification requirements now inplace on the 49th.
That I concur with along with the Passport requirements to enter.
And the Americans are competing with piles of Canadians getting milk and gas to cross the border.
Americans have less vacation time than other countries and, as the attack on the middle class intensified, benefits in general were hit hard. The OP cites data on unemployment – but simply holding on to your job got much trickier for Americans, and “voluntarily” giving up some leave of absence would be part of that. A passport is now needed to cross the border – as two others have noted – but very few Americans have passports. And even fewer like the performance that has to be endured at the border and the airport. The TSA is one of the least effective – and least responsive – federal agencies, but the source of many complaints. Getting back home again should not be a traumatic experience!