Get Your Boarding Pass Ready: KAYAK Forecasts Canadian Travel Trends For The Holidays

Layer Sunscreen, Not Sweaters. Early Preview Reveals Canadians Are Seeking International Sunshine

TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2016 /CNW/ - With the holidays just around the corner, tis' the season for travel planning and vacation booking. To understand when, where and how Canadians will be handling the cold, today KAYAK shared a temperature check on top travel destinations and holiday habits for winter 2016/17.

As the world's leading travel search engine, KAYAK has curated and analyzed Canadian holiday searches that foreshadow national travel trends for the festive season:

• Canadians are living for more than just the weekend. ¹
  • In fact, Canadians are taking an average of 10 vacation days –three days longer than fellow US and UK travelers.
    • A similar pattern to 2015/16, KAYAK anticipates Canadians will be taking this time between December 1, 2016 and January 9, 2017.
      
      
• Bon voyage – International holiday destinations are on Canadians' radar more than ever before.²
  • With a 50 per cent year-over-year growth in international versus domestic destination interest, Canadians are taking their travels further this winter.
  • Despite Fort Lauderdale taking an early lead as the most popular holiday destination, Canadians have less interest in keeping close to home with a yearly decrease in the number of US and Canadian cities found on Canada's top winter destination list.
    • Compared to last year at this time, interest in US travel is down by 30 per cent while destinations like London are gaining significant momentum.
      
      
• Canadians say no to coats this holiday! Sun-filled destinations are calling to Canucks like never before.²
  • Canadians are looking to catch more rays with new locations like Cancun and Honolulu making the list of top winter destinations in this holiday travel forecast; while cities like Las Vegas and New York are trailing in traveler traction.

"Last year, Canada proved to be a procrastination nation as KAYAK's data revealed Canadians were a few weeks behind travelers in the US, France, Denmark and the UK," said Debby Soo, KAYAK Travel Expert. "We always recommend planning in advance as starting earlier could save Canadians some extra cash - and headaches. Using tools like Price Alert can also help travelers stay within budget this season."

To further paint predictions for this year's holiday travel, KAYAK has unveiled city-specific insights into some of Canada's major hubs²:

• ALOHA VANCOUVER
  • Over the past three winters, Honolulu has taken the top of Vancouver's holiday travel list, and is on its way to a four-year sweep, ahead of choice destinations like Hong Kong and Dubai.
    
    
• EDMONTON HEADS TO 'THE SIX'
  • While Hawaii once topped Edmonton's holiday destination list, this year Toronto is leading the charge ahead of warm-weather cities like Cancun, LA and Orlando.
    
    
• WINNIPEG LIKES ITS HOT
  • Winnipeg residents are seeking a break from their notoriously cold climate, with hot locations filling each spot on their top travel destination list so far including Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu and LA.
    
    
• CALGARY LEAVES THE COUNTRY
  • Without one Canadian location found on their top destination list yet, Calgarians are seeking international adventure with Hawaii as their choice destination for the fourth consecutive year, and with Tokyo finding its way back to its top 10 list.
    
    
• OTTAWA HEADS SOUTH
  • So far it seems Ottawa residents are heading to the Sunshine Coast, with Fort Lauderdale (four years running!), Orlando, Tampa and Miami as their top winter travel destinations.
    
    
• TORONTO SEEKS NEW SCENERY
  • With New Delhi and London (for the third year) topping their most popular destination list so far, Torontonians are seeking far-flung locations, including Hong Kong, Costa Rica and Paris.
    
    
• MONTREAL LONGS FOR LOVE
  • Consistency is key for the belle province! Over the past four years, Paris has been the top choice for Montreal winter (l'hiver) travelers, with Fort Lauderdale consistently coming in at number two, followed by Costa Rica and Honolulu. 

In addition to discovering best flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages on KAYAK.com, Canadian travelers can turn to Price Alerts that signal cost drops and KAYAK Explore that helps plan on a budget. For more tips on where, when and how to best travel this winter, visit KAYAK.com.

ABOUT KAYAK
KAYAK is the world's leading travel search engine. The company's websites and mobile apps allow people to easily search hundreds of travel sites at once for flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. KAYAK processes 1.5 billion annual searches for travel information and operates more than 40 international sites in 20 languages. KAYAK is an independently managed subsidiary of The Priceline Group.

¹ Methodology: Search dates are from June 1, 2013 - August 28, 2016 YTD for each corresponding year. All Travel dates: December 1, 2013  - January 9, 2016 for each corresponding year.
² Methodology: Search dates are March 1, 2016 - September 1, 2016 with travel dates December 1, 2016 - January 9, 2017.

SOURCE KAYAK

Image with caption: "KAYAK (CNW Group/KAYAK)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161011_C7701_PHOTO_EN_791257.jpg

Erin MacDonald, Weber Shandwick, [email protected], 416 642-7951