The true north is home to breathtaking landscapes, booming cities and great people, but we're competing with many places all over the world for people to visit. Last year, though, it turns out that a lot of people chose to come here and explore all the country has to offer. The number of tourists in Canada reached 22.1 million in 2019, and the country got lots of visits from our closest neighbours. According to new data from Statistics Canada, a record-breaking number of international tourists travelled here from abroad in 2019 which surpasses the previous year's record. That also marks the sixth year in a row that the amount of tourists in the true north has gone up. It seems like people can't get enough of Canada, especially our friends south of the border. The number of travellers from the U.S. rose to 15 million last year, which is more than twice the amount of people that came to Canada from all overseas countries during the same time period. For people travelling to our country from the U.S., the most popular times to visit were from May to October, with 68.8% of tourist arrivals happening then. On the other hand, the summer specifically was the peak time for other international tourists. 51.9% of all arrivals from overseas happened during the months of June to September. While people definitely prefer to visit when the weather is warmer as opposed to when it gets cold, tourists are still coming to the true north in the winter. View this post on Instagram Breakfast with a view đâ .â Wintertime is full of outdoor activities in the area, from snowshoeing to skiing, ice skating to snowboarding. Snowsports not your cup of tea? There are plenty of wonderful restaurants and spas in the area too. If youâre passing Kananaskis, be sure to stop in at @knordicspa for the ultimate relaxing experience! #ExploreCanadaâ â đ·: @jaejae278â đ: @banff_lakelouise, @travelalbertaâ â #MyBanff #ExploreAlberta #TravelAlbertaâ A post shared by Explore Canada (@explorecanada) on Feb 9, 2020 at 8:01am PST Our country welcomed 7.5 million people from overseas throughout the entire 12 months of 2019. In that time, people from Europe took 3.2 million trips to Canada. That makes the continent one of the major sources of travellers that come here. Statistics Canada also noted that Ontario and B.C. were two places where a lot of people first came into the country on their travels, especially ones from the U.S. and China. View this post on Instagram "From the clear water that hugs the shallow edge of the shore to the bluish green teal further out, the shades of blue lead out to the powerful cobalt blue that makes up the rest of the lake, setting up a strong contrast to the soothing light blue of the perfect cloudless sky." Anne-Marie Marais, @TorontoStar⣠⣠đ· @kubackichels⣠đ @BruceGreySimcoe A post shared by Ontario Travel (@ontariotravel) on Aug 22, 2019 at 7:00am PDT While people from all over the world were busy vacationing here, Canadians did quite a bit of globetrotting themselves in 2019. During the year, there were 12.3 million trips overseas to countries that aren't the U.S. which broke the previous record set in 2017. It also helps that the Canadian passport has been one of the best in the world for the last 14 years, so travelling is a little easier.
