Just before the COVID-19 virus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, Canada was celebrating a milestone achievement with 22.1M international arrivals to Canada in 2019. By all measures, Canada was set to have another record-breaking year in 2020. However, our industry now faces an unprecedented downturn in international arrivals as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions. 

With a two-month delay in reporting from Statistics Canada on international arrivals, we are just beginning to see the full scale of the downturn in arrivals. Overall, compared to the January – April period in 2019, travel to Canada from all inbound countries is down 44%. Comparing April 2019 to April 2020, arrivals are down 98.3%.

TIAC will continue to monitor and report on these numbers through TIAC Talk in the months to come. We also remain committed to work with government in ensuring support for the visitor economy into the recovery phase.