An unprecedented number of Americans avoided the hassle and cost of a same-day cross-border car trip in October, as overall U.S. travel to Canada dropped to its lowest level since record-keeping began in 1972.
In all, Americans made 2.29 million trips to Canada in October, according to a report from Statistics Canada. That marks a 2.2-per-cent drop from September and a 12.1-per-cent tumble from a year ago.
The largest monthly plunge was in September, 2001, and in the five years since terrorist attacks brought down the World Trade Center towers, day-long U.S. visits to Canada have never topped two million.
Although Statscan does not track the reasons for shifts in travel, economists and experts believe the drop is being driven by the weaker U.S and stronger Canadian dollars, the high cost of gasoline, and the U.S. push to tighten security.
us officials were quoted as saying, "stay at home, do not travel and experience life, work work work."