Waves of Canadian tourists pouring into US this summer
Soaring Canadian dollars are luring Canadians in apparently record numbers to take a summer vacation in the US.
“They say there are more Canadians than ever before. It’s good for everyone,” said Claire Beaulieu, an owner of the Motel Kebec 2, which is just across the American border in the state of Maine.
Last summer, the loonie, the Canadian dollar named after the loon on the back of the coin, reached a 28-year high against the greenback. That meant Canadians could trade in their loonies for 90 US cents.
Since then, the Canadian dollar has grown even stronger. Today, the loonie and greenback are nearly equal, with a loonie being worth about 95 cents, according to the AP.
It’s a dramatic change from five years earlier, when the loonie was worth 62 cents in the United States.
Canadian travel to the US has grown 23% since then, according to data published by the Commerce Department.
“These are some of the best days for Canadian tourists who wish to travel south of the border for their summer vacation since bellbottom jeans and disco balls were all the rage,” Michael Woolfolk of the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. told the AP.
The trend is expected to continue for several years, said Mr Woolfolk, a senior currency strategist.
Some Canadian banks have had to dip into their reserves after running out of greenbacks as Canadians cash in their loonies for trips to the US, said Manny Witt, director of the New England Tourism Office in Montreal.
The number of overnight trips by Canadians to the US has been growing steadily since April 2003, when travel slowed because of concerns over the war in Iraq and the SARS scare, according to Statistics Canada.
In January, the number of overnight trips from Canada to the United States was the highest in more than 13 years.
The most popular destination for Canadians: New York, followed by Florida and Washington state; then Michigan, California and Nevada.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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