In 2020, Canada’s tourism spending declined 50 percent

Published on : Monday, April 5, 2021

In 2020, tourism spending has got almost half compared to the year before, declining 48.1 per cent compared to 2019.
The statistics appears in a new report from Statistics Canada specifying the outcome on tourism, portrayed among the “hardest hit sectors of the economy” in 2020 because of physical distancing designed to sluggish virus spread.

The announcement of a worldwide pandemic in mid-March 2020 and the accompanying steps like physical distancing actually curbed tourism spending in the first quarter of last year with the second quarter almost entirely subject to these restrictions, it reads.

“Many restrictions were eased in the third quarter in conjunction with fewer COVID-19 cases, which provided more tourism spending opportunities,” it reads. “The fourth quarter saw increased restrictions in many provinces during the second wave of the pandemic, limiting the availability of services generally purchased by tourists.”

Passenger air transport dropped by almost three-quarters (-72.4 per cent) annually, the largest contributor to the overall slump in tourism spending in 2020.

The drop in tourism jobs reflected the general decline in tourism spending. In 2020, total tourism jobs dropped 28.7 per cent with most of the slump happening in the second quarter. “All tourism categories were down in 2020, with food and beverage services (down 32.3 per cent) and accommodation (down 35.2 per cent) contributing most to the overall decline. Tourism’s share of overall employment fell to three per cent from 3.8 per cent in 2020.”