BY THE NUMBERS

STATISTICS CANADA’S National Travel Survey collects data on trips inside and outside Canada, and although the COVID-19 pandemic was not on our radar until late December, the last quarter of 2019 will be an important benchmark for measuring the 2020 nosedive caused by travel restrictions, the Canada-U.S. border closure and the decision to minimize exposure to the novel coronavirus. The data collected between September and December 2019 not only captures our movements at the beginning of last year’s snowbird season, it shows the massive scale of the annual migration and, it should be noted, includes Christmas travel.