“All sorts of people had appreciation for things that were canceled in 2020 and 2021, especially cruise ships.” Those vouchers and travel credit have now been spent.
Millennials – who now outnumber baby boomers in Canada – and Generation Z together make up greater than half of all passengers, in line with FlightHub. They cited family visits because the primary reason for air travel over the vacations, which explains the domestic turnaround.
Overseas, the capitals of the Philippines and India – Manila and New Delhi – saw a number of the highest booking numbers from Canada between December 20 and January 1, in line with FlightHub.
“They also usually return to see family and friends,” Rahbani said. Leisure travel to some sunny destinations has now stagnated.
Top U.S. destinations remain popular
Despite the shift to domestic travel, many general patterns remain. For those venturing south, New York City, Florida and California remain the highest destinations across nearly all age groups.
“It has stabilized,” said Richard Vanderlubbe, founding father of travel agency Tripcentral.ca, referring to travel habits normally. But this similarity to 2023 represents in itself a giant change from recent years, which saw wild fluctuations in customer numbers as COVID-19 restrictions got here and went.
According to Statistics Canada, passenger numbers at Canada’s eight largest airports rose 4% year-over-year in October, but only barely exceeded population growth. And the 5% increase in air travelers since 2019 fell wanting the ten% population growth over that period, meaning per capita volume has declined.
Nearly 1 / 4 of FlightHub customers said that they had budgeted between $1,000 and $2,000 for vacation travel. Another 22 percent put aside between $500 and $1,000, and most others put aside lower than $500.
