The Canadian Tourism Commission tracks international overnight inbound tourist visits. The growth rates between countries are markedly different. Overall overnight visits are up 3.1% year over year. Canada’s largest ‘customer’ the US us actually down 0.3%.
Some interesting stats on the overnight arrivals to Canada:
Tourism spending in Canada totaled $79B in 2011 according to the Canadian Tourism Industry Association. These expenditures supported more than 600,000 jobs. The three territories garnered $147M in GDP activity due to tourism.
Some tourist operators in the NWT have tapped into winter tourism for Japanese visitors to view the aurora borealis. Northern tourism operators have yet to tap into the Chinese tourism market—a pool of visitors that is almost three times as large.