Visitor Travel Survey (VTS)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: January 01, 2018

Reference period of change - second quarter 2023

Following a collection hiatus due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, VTS collection operations have partially resumed in April 2023. For the air commercial portion, the Air Exit Survey (AES) resumed collection in five major airports. For the non-air commercial portion (land, water, private air), estimates were derived using a combination of collected AES data, historical non-air commercial information and the Frontier Counts; the electronic questionnaires have not resumed.

Reference period of change - second, third and fourth quarter 2021

The estimation of trips to Canada by trip purpose using administrative data ceased in this quarter. Starting in the second quarter of 2020, estimates of trip purpose had been derived using data from E311 declaration cards collected at the Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1, the last major Canadian airport to use E311 declaration cards. Starting with the third quarter of 2021, these data were no longer available as the Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1 switched to the use of Primary Inspection Kiosks, which do not subdivide trip purpose between business and personal.

Reference period of change - second quarter 2020

Due to the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, estimates since the second quarter of 2020 were produced using very different methods than in prior quarters, as all VTS survey collection operations were suspended in March 2020. In the absence of survey data from travellers, estimates for the VTS program were derived by calculating growth rates from relevant administrative datasets and applying these growth rates to VTS results from the same quarter of 2019. Due to quality considerations, some variables or levels of detail were not produced. Users are strongly advised to read the description of data sources, methods and limitations.

We recommend that users interpret estimates for these quarters with caution.

Report a problem on this page

Is something not working? Is there information outdated? Can't find what you're looking for?

Please contact us and let us know how we can help you.

Privacy notice

Date modified: