Travel into, out of Canada dips in June

OTTAWA, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Travel into and out of Canada decreased in June from May, continuing a months-long trend, the Statistics Canada agency reported Monday.

Some 2.3 million trips were made into Canada in June, which is down 1.3 percent from May, but down 12.7 percent on an annual basis, the report said.

The rate of Canadians traveling out of the country also declined by 0.8 percent to 4.4 million in June, which marks the fifth consecutive monthly decline. However, on an annual basis, it was 8.8 percent higher than June 2007, StatsCan said. Of the Canadians' travels, 3.8 million were trips to the United States, which was down 0.9 percent from May.

Overall travel into Canada from the United States fell 1.2 percent from May, continuing a near year-long trend associated with the Canadian dollar reaching or surpassing par with the U.S. dollar, data shows.