Domestic travel growing as Canadians visit getaways close to home

Domestic travel is picking up in Canada despite the ongoing economic shutdown, according to new data from Airbnb Inc.

The company said domestic bookings in the first week of June increased by 30 per cent compared to the same week last year. Prior to COVID-19, 40 per cent of all Airbnb bookings in Canada were domestic, while 60 per cent were from international visitors.

“What we are seeing in Canada is similar to what we have seen in North America and globally. People can’t travel abroad, so they are finding spaces within their own states or counties or countries to visit,” said Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s senior vice-president for global policy and communications. “We have seen a real increase in domestic travel.”

Provinces started reopening their economies at the end of May, albeit at different paces. B.C., Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are the furthest along in easing economic lockdowns. For instance, bars, restaurants, hair salons and nail salons in Vancouver are all in operation, though with capacity restrictions. In Toronto and Montreal, restrictions on a number of sectors remain in place.

Airbnb’s data also show that almost 60 per cent of current bookings in Canada are in non-urban markets, a sharp departure from the past when bookings were mostly concentrated in places such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Lehane said Canadian travellers have increased their bookings domestically over the past two weeks. “It’s weekend trips, mostly,” he said. “Of course, I don’t want to over-interpret what we have seen in the last four to five weeks, because it could be pent-up demand, but there have been repetitive bookings for short weekend trips in the 50-mile radius of where people are living.”

An Ipsos poll conducted at the end of May, before many regions began reopening, found that only 20 per cent of Canadians would even consider travelling outside the country in 2020 when it is allowed, while a whopping 50 per cent said they wouldn’t. But 37 per cent said they would travel outside their home province to other domestic locations if allowed.