International Travel Survey, 2008: Canadian Resident Trips Overseas File

The International Travel Survey (ITS) is an ongoing survey conducted by Statistics Canada since the 1920s to meet the requirements of the Canadian System of National Accounts (Balance of Payments (BOP)). Through the years, the need for detailed characteristics of travellers for market research and industry planning was gradually incorporated in the survey. Today, the ITS provides a full range of statistics on the volume of international travellers and detailed characteristics of their trips such as expenditures, activities, places visited and length of stay. The ITS covers both Canadian residents returning from trips outside Canada and international visitors to Canada. In addition to fulfilling BOP requirements, the ITS is also being used by the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), Customs Canada, the Canadian tourism Commission (CTC), provincial tourism agencies, the United States Department of Commerce and a number of private sector industries. The ITS is also used for reporting to international organizations such as the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Pacific-Asia Tourism Association.