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3) The average Canadian gets 26 paid vacation days a year, while the average American gets 13 paid vacation days a year. So after Americans burn through 5 days a year just doing things like going to family events and the like, they have one week left. Not a lot of time to spend in the car driving up north.
Still not an excuse. You could visit on a daytrip, weekend or long-weekend.
The U.S. has many public holidays falling on a Monday creating 3 day weekend.
Still not an excuse. You could visit on a daytrip, weekend or long-weekend.
The U.S. has many public holidays falling on a Monday creating 3 day weekend.
I've been to Canada three times (Toronto twice and Vancouver) and loved it there, and I live pretty far away (Atlanta). Maybe the low numbers are because there are other, more interesting places to visit internationally?
The close proximity to U.S. states along the northern border should make for lots of tourism between the two countries, and I always thought there was a lot of it.
Still not an excuse. You could visit on a daytrip, weekend or long-weekend.
The U.S. has many public holidays falling on a Monday creating 3 day weekend.
Excuse me if I find your tone offputting. These are reasons, not excuses. If you want more visitors to Canada, then whip up some whoopity-scoopity ad campaign banging the drum for tourism. But as someone who has visited Canada a dozen times over the years, I'm not really going to justify choosing to visit Miami or Chicago rather than Toronto or Montreal over a holiday weekend, thanks.
I've visited Canada a few times, Ontario and Quebec. I have a friend who lives in Peterborough, Ontario, and I've driven there twice--it's about a 9 hour drive from where I live. Fact of the matter is I enjoy traveling and just being in another country, even if that's not enough of an attraction for most people who won't find it exotic enough. Crossing the border is also a big drawback that most people don't want to go through. Both of the times I drove to Canada I did it alone. And I guess solo traveling is suspicious or something, since I was sent to secondary inspection on both occasions. On the first occasion, my car was searched.
I'd go up to British Columbia more if it wasn't so expensive these days... I realize we'll never get back to the ridicoulously cheap days when the exchange rate was under 70 Canadian Cents to the US Dollar--but with the stronger Canadian dollar and a 12% HST(combined provincial/federal sales tax)--I found a my recent trip to BC to be even more expensive most of the US. It's beautiful up there--but the scenery is fairly similar to Washington just to the South--I'll go up for some hikes and maybe short trips to Vancouver(which is a fun city), but hotels, restaurants get sort of pricey these days.
The places I'd really love to spend more time in are Montreal and Quebec City for the French Quebecois atmosphere and Toronto for the cosmopolitan feel---plus I've never been to the Atlantic Provinces. That's more culturally interesting for me than BC--which is pretty close to the rest of the Northwest in many ways.
For some of us, it's an expensive hassle just to travel within our own country, much less go to another one. I visited Canada when I was young and loved it (no need for passports or anything back then), but economic circumstances and employers that don't allow much off time make it difficult to go on real vacations.
If I lived closer, I'd totally go more often. We live within the 10 hour time frame, but that just puts me in Sioux St. Marie or Thunder Bay.
I've been to Canada three times (Toronto twice and Vancouver) and loved it there, and I live pretty far away (Atlanta). Maybe the low numbers are because there are other, more interesting places to visit internationally?
The close proximity to U.S. states along the northern border should make for lots of tourism between the two countries, and I always thought there was a lot of it.
They are actually amazingly close but Canada has some disadvanatages when it comes to tourism with its southern neighbor --- obviously with the warm Southern states (especially Florida) but also with the Northern states in the Great Lakes - Northeast areas.
Take Ontario for instance, which when looking at a map looks like it has thousands of beautiful lakes, especially in W. Ontario. Who wouldn't want to spend a week at a peaceful lakeside cabin in Ontario? But then remember that an American, say in Chicagoland, would have to pass thousands of equally beautiful lakes in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Minnesota to get to Ontario. Do some people do this? Of course! But I bet the majority of Americans say why bother so they stay in the USA.
Further east you have the huge Bosh-Wash corridor but here Canada not only has to compete with lakes, you begin to have the eastern mountains. The Province of Quebec has quite a number of large provinical parks in the Laurentian mountains (Laurentian Mountains - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) which are related to the Adirondack mountains. But why would a New Yorker travel through the Adirondacks to get to Quebec when the Adirondacks are both higher and filled with lakes? Why would someone from Boston travel past the magnificent White mountains to spend a week camping in the smaller Quebec mountains? Not to mention people in the East passing other resorts like the Berkshires, the Catskills, the Poconos, the Greens, the Blude Ridge etc.
Still further east you have the rocky coast and little seaports of the Canadian Maritimes (I LOVE Nova Scotia!). But here again you are competing with nearby areas of the USA, namely New England --- and especially Maine. For many many people --- why travel further when you can get the rocky coast and classic seaports in Maine?
I left eastern Canadian cities for last. Here you have beautiful, clean, unique and interesting cities like Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City and Halifax. But even here there are some interesting cities and towns on the USA side of the border, and there are more of them.
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Eastern Canada vs Eastern USA
