Canadians continue to avoid U.S. travel this summer: surveys

Many travel agencies say they've seen an increase in domestic bookings and a spike in searches for home grown adventures.

The trend of Canadians avoiding travel to the United States is continuing, even as the busy summer vacation season begins.

Travel agencies say they’ve seen an increase in domestic bookings and a spike in searches for home grown adventures.

“We are seeing a lot of domestic travel among Canadians this year,” said Kayla DeLoache, travel expert with Kayak, a website that compares flights, hotels, and rental cars.

Trips across the U.S. border continue to drop and many Canadians plan to check out the east coast, the west coast and everywhere in between, although travel to Europe remains strong.

Kayak found there has been a 25 per cent increase in domestic flight searches and 55 per cent of car rental searches are now domestic.

“Domestic flight prices are down about eight per cent, so it’s good news for you if you need a flight and car rental prices are down about 14 per cent this year,” said DeLoache.

Kayak found that return flights to many cities in Canada can be found within the $300 range and many families are also expected to take road trips visiting Canadian attractions by car.

“There seems to be this renewed interest in exploring Canada and really supporting our own backyard,” said Amra Durakovic, head of communications for Flight Centre Travel Group.

Flight Centre has also noticed a five percent increase in domestic travel bookings and says bookings to the U.S. saw a 58 per cent decrease in May over the same period last year.

While many travellers don’t want to cross the U.S. border to vacation, travel to Europe remains a favourite for many Canadians .

“Overall Europe is holding strong and is not slowing down at all. Our top destinations are London, Paris, and Dublin,” said Durakovic.

It’s unclear if these travel trends brought on by trade tensions with the U.S. will continue, but travel companies say the boost of domestic tourism within Canada should be good for Canadian businesses.

Another survey by TD Bank Group also found that 64 per cent of Canadians plan to travel within Canada in the months ahead and projects that tourism-related industries will “outperform” other industries as Canadians spend their travel dollars at home.