United States

$1.6 Billion

Total expenditure in Alberta (2023)

161 Million

Passport holders (2023)

16.4 Million

Potential market size (2023)

3 days

Average length of stay in Alberta (2023)

Overview

Outbound travel from the United States continued to grow this year, estimated at 111% of 2019 levels. Outbound travel fully recovered to 2019 levels in 2023. This is supported by strong consumer spending which has been driving robust GDP growth in post-pandemic years. With inflation slowing in recent months, the U.S. Federal Reserve started cutting interest rates in September 2023. This is likely to stimulate consumer spending and therefore, outbound travel even further.

On this page:

Competitor Comparison
Air Travel
Economic Indicators
Traveller Characteristics

Competitor Comparison

2023

Indicator	Quebec	Ontario	Alberta	BC	Canada
Visitation	3 Million	10 Million	1.4 Million	6.3 Million	-
Expenditure	$2.1 Billion	$4.5 Billion	$1.6 Billion	$4.5 Billion	$12.8 Billion
Share of total national expenditure	16%	35%	12%	27%	-
Average spend	$861	$658	$1,356	$953	-

Pre-pandemic (2019)

Indicator	Quebec	Ontario	Alberta	BC	Canada
Visitation	3.2 Million	12.9 Million	1.3 Million	6.4 Million	26.9 Million
Share of total national visitation	12%	48%	5%	24%	-
Expenditure	$1.9 Billion	$4.2 Billion	$995 Million	$3.1 Billion	$11.4 Billion
Share of total national expenditure	17%	37%	9%	27%	-
Average spend	$587	$323	$828	$474	$422

Air Travel

Economic Indicators

Indicator	2023	2024 Estimate	2025 Forecast
GDP - per capita (US$)	$81,744	$85,569	$88,734
GDP - YoY Growth Rate	2.9%	2.8%	2.6%
Exchange Rate (CAD/USD) (annual average)	$1.35	N/A	N/A
Unemployment Rate (annual average)	3.6%	4.1%	4.3%
Inflation Rate (annual average)	4.1%	2.9%	2.5%

Traveller Characteristics

Breakdown of traveller spending

Top barriers to travel
Travel is too expensive	37%
Personal finance reasons	34%
Gasoline was too expensive	28%
Airfare was too expensive	25%
I'm too busy at work	20%
Not enough PTO/vacation time	14%

Top 5 trip anchors
Northern lights	33%
Natural attractions like mountains or waterfalls	32%
Nature parks	25%
Hiking or walking in nature	23%
Viewing wildlife or marine life	23%

Preferred marketing channel
Email	35%
Websites found via a search engine	34%
Facebook	30%
Online content (articles and blogs)	24%
Instagram	20%
Streaming video services (YouTube, Hulu, etc.)	16%

Purpose of visit

Sources

Passports in circulation: U.S. Dep of State, 2022 

Market potential: Global Tourism Watch (GTW, 2022)

Length of stay: Near Intelligence (2023)

Competition comparison and quarterly spend: Statistics Canada (VTS, 2022)

Economic indicators: Oxford Economics (2024)

Spending category: Destination Canada (2022)

Purpose of visit, barriers and channels: Future Partners (2024)

Exchange Rate: Bank of Canada