National Travel Survey (NTS)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 2022

Reference period of change - fourth quarter 2020

Starting with the release of fourth-quarter data for 2020, analyses of domestic visit-expenditures in Daily releases are based on a measure that includes commercial air expenditures and expenses incurred at the point of origin of the trip. These figures should not be directly compared with data from previous Daily releases. For the pre-existing measure of domestic visit-expenditures (PYYYYQx_NTS_Domestic_Visit_Expenditures_Visit_Only_Eng.xlsx), the same-day/overnight proportions have been revised.
Counts of domestic and international person-visits in the standard tables since 2018 were also revised.

Reference period of change - second quarter 2020

Due to the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, estimates for this quarter, which cover the months of March to June 2020, were produced using very different methods than in prior quarters, as all NTS survey collection operations were suspended for the four-month period of March 2020 to June 2020. In the absence of survey data from travellers, estimates for this quarter were derived using a combination of survey estimates from the same period of 2019 and growth trends from Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker values of 2020, adjusted with the difference between the 2021 Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker and NTS values. 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.

Reference period of change - January 2016 (pilot survey)

A pilot project was developed to be conducted in February and March 2016, for reference periods January and February 2016. The pilot survey is a data collection activity without data dissemination. The pilot version of the National Travel Survey evaluates the on-line response application and the take-up rate.

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