Foreign travel into Canada rose in April, but is still down from a year ago, according to Statistics Canada data released Thursday.
Total travel to Canada increased 1.1% to 2.27 million visits, up from 2.24 million visits in March. The improvement was led by an increase in visits from the U.S. (0.7%), the U.K. (6.3%) and France (7.8%).
Travel to Canada from Mexico dropped 10.2%, due to restrictions and concerns over the spread of the H1N1 virus. Declines were also reported from China (0.6%) and South Korea (4.5%).
Despite the month-to-month increases, travel is still down 1.7% year-over-year from 2.3 million visits in April 2008. Fewer visitors are coming to Canada from most of the country's major markets, including the U.K., Japan, Mexico, Australia and South Korea.
Canadian trips abroad also remain low, down 10.7% in the past year to 3.95 million visits from 4.42 million a year ago.