Canadians are suffering from an epic outbreak of wanderlust. They spent more than ever before on trips overseas and to the United States during the first quarter of this year, Statistics Canada said yesterday. This drove Canada’s international travel deficit to an estimated $1.2-billion, the largest shortfall since the last quarter of 2003.

The exodus continues a trend that saw a record number of Canadians travel overseas in 2004, especially to Europe and the Caribbean. They set new highs in terms of both spending in countries other than the United States ($8.8-billion) and numbers of visits (5.7 million).

In fact, overseas destinations accounted for more than 29 per cent of Canadians’ trips abroad last year, up from just under 16 per cent in 1993. Statscan analyst Frances Kremarik said the agency has not sought to catalogue reasons for this shift.

However, she noted that airlines have added new overseas destinations over the past decade. As well, the loonie’s rise against the U.S. dollar in the past two years means it also stretches farther in Caribbean countries, where the tourist trade operates based on the greenback.

Another possible “deterrent” to U.S. travel, she said, is the “more intense” border security measures the United States has imposed since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

This explanation holds water for Marc-André Charlebois, president of the Canadian Association of Travel Agencies. “With U.S. entry becoming much more complicated, and the way you’re treated by border people . . . it is quite a disincentive to travel to the States,” he said. He also cited the U.S. “backlash” against Canada in the wake of Ottawa’s failure to back the Iraq war, and lingering suspicions from the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Toronto. “All of this has combined to make us less welcome in that country,” he said.

Still, this does not mean that travel by Canadians to the United States is declining, only that its share of the pie is shrinking. Indeed, the number of overnight trips Canadians made to U.S. destinations rose to nearly 14 million last year, up 9.4 per cent, while spending climbed 7.3 per cent to almost $8.7-billion.

As for the first-quarter travel deficit, Statscan said it was $311-million more than that in the preceding three months. It came as Canadians spent a record $5.5-billion abroad, while foreigners parted with $4.3-billion in this country.

Canadian spending was up 5.4 per cent from last year’s fourth quarter and consisted of $3-billion in the United States and $2.5-billion overseas, both new highs. By contrast, foreign spending here was down 0.6 per cent from a record set in the fourth quarter.

Statscan noted in particular that American spending in Canada fell for the first time in almost two years, dropping 3.4 per cent to $2.5-billion.

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