Poll: Canadians trimming vacation spending

TORONTO, July 2 (UPI) -- Nearly half of Canadians with summer vacation plans intend to spend less than usual because of the recession, a poll published Thursday suggests.

Of 2,262 adults questioned by the EKOS polling firm last month, 48 percent said their vacation budgets would be smaller, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Of the remainder, 32 percent said they expected to spend the same as previous years, while 20 percent they would spend more for a vacation than usual. The margin of error was 2.1 percent.

Frank Graves, president of the polling company, said there was a "paradoxical" quality to the poll's findings.

"It is obviously sensible from an individual perspective to cut back in hard times," he said. "However, this will also make it harder for the economy to emerge from the recession."

The federal Statistics Canada agency reported this week total spending on tourism in the country declined 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009.