Visitor Travel Survey (VTS)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: January 01, 2018

Reference period of change - second quarter 2024

The methodology for modelling visits and expenditures at the provincial or territorial level for US same-day trips where travelers entered Canada via a mode other than commercial air has been improved to better reflect the expected location where these travelers were visiting. The impacted final estimates have been revised in Table 24-10-0066-01 starting with the first quarter of 2023, when the Air Exit Survey (AES) restarted. Estimates that focus on trips by residents of countries other than the United States of America or with entries to Canada via commercial air were unaffected.

Reference period of change - first quarter 2024

Starting from the release in August 2024, three new tables are published online. Each table contains estimates starting from the first quarter of 2018.

Q1 2023 has been revised due to methodological changes to align with AES restart.

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.