The shrinking exchange rate of the Canadian loonie compared to the US dollar is helping to push Americans to take vacations in the borders of their vast northern neighbor, where their dollars can buy more.
The Canadian dollar fell to under 85 cents to the US dollar in January, and in July reached a low of 80 cents. Compare that with last summer’s 90 cents on the US dollar. And the travel industry is feeling the growth.
The Banff and Lake Louise information centers reported a 21 percent increase in US visitors from January to June this year, over the same period last year. Leslie Bruce, president of the Banff Lake Louise Tourism organization said that online travel agencies have reported that bookings to the area from the US are up by at least one-third.
“There is a noticeable change,” she said, most likely an effect of the shrinking loonie, although it is hard to know for sure.
The city of Vancouver also reported a spike in the number of visitors from the US. Ty Speer, president of Tourism Vancouver, said that American visitors went up by about 8 percent during the first five months of 2015.
“That’s a little bit more than us just having a really good year,” Speer said. Many factors contributed to the increase, but there is certainly “a little bit of help from the currency.”
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