The Visitor Travel Survey was developed to fully replace the visitor component of the International Travel Survey. The Visitor Travel Survey collects information about international travel to Canada by U.S. and overseas residents. Starting in 2018, the Canadian residents component of the former ITS became part of the new National Travel Survey (record 5232, see https://hdl.handle.net/11272.1/AB2/NTBL54).
The electronic questionnaires (e-questionnaires) and Air Exit Survey (AES) are the two components of the Visitor Travel Survey (VTS). The objective of the VTS is to provide more detailed information about the characteristics of U.S. and overseas travellers to Canada, such as expenditures, activities, places visited, and length of stay.
Information from the VTS is used to meet the requirements of the Canadian System of National Accounts (Balance of Payments (BOP)). Moreover, the information collected in the questionnaires is used by the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Destination Canada, provincial tourism agencies, the United States Department of Commerce, the OECD, banks, investment companies, other private sector industries and independent researchers. The information is also used for reporting to international organizations such as the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA).
The AES started in the year 2000 for overseas visitors and in the year 2011 for U.S. visitors. The primary objective of the AES is to improve the quality and reliability of trip and traveller estimates for foreign air travellers to Canada, from major and emerging markets. Starting in 2017, tablets were introduced to replace the AES paper questionnaires. Although the main mode of collection for the AES interviews is the electronic questionnaire on the tablets used by the interviewers, paper questionnaires can still be used as a back-up in case of tablet failure, or for eight commonly used languages other than English and French.
The e-questionnaire component of the survey began in 2013, with the distribution of invitation cards to travellers (Canadian, American, and Overseas) who entered at one of 137 designated Canadian ports of entry. The mail-back questionnaires were last used in 2014. As of 2018, the invitation cards will be distributed to non-Canadian residents only as the VTS is only in-scope for U.S. and other overseas travellers.
(2020-12)