More Than 700K Canadians Went Abroad Last Month Despite Canada's Travel Advisory
Another 600,000 returned from the United States via land borders, too.👇
It seems Canada's global travel advisory, repeated warnings from the feds and concerns about the Omicron variant were not enough to stop Canadians from heading overseas for the holidays.
In a new report, Statistics Canada shared how many people took a trip abroad in December 2021, and hundreds of thousands of Canadians headed to another country before returning home.
More than 742,400 Canadian residents returned from abroad via plane between December 1 and 31, which is almost eight times greater than the previous year and is actually nearly two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels.
At the land border, another 608,900 Canadian residents returned from the U.S. in December alone, which is over four times the figure from 2020.
The report notes that while Canada's borders were open to all fully vaccinated non-resident travellers by December 2021, Omicron had prompted the country to implement stricter measures.
This included a non-essential global travel advisory as of December 15, which urged Canadians to avoid discretionary trips abroad.
While travellers are not required to follow the advisory, the feds warned on multiple occasions that leaving the country could result in complications returning to Canada or even being "forced to remain outside of Canada longer than expected."
That's not all. On December 21, the government implemented an updated pre-entry test requirement at land borders, which Statistics Canada says had a "clear" impact on travellers.
"In the first 20 days of the month, an average of 24,600 Canadian residents per day returned from the United States," the report said.
"After the testing requirement went into effect, this daily average decreased by more than half [to 10,600]."
As of January 23, Canada's global travel advisory remains in effect.
Both the U.S. and Canada have recently ramped up travel measures at their borders, making it harder for unvaccinated non-residents to enter.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
Before you get going, check out our Responsible Travel Guide so you can be informed, be safe, be smart, and most of all, be respectful on your adventure.