The good news for sa国际传媒's tourism sector is that the number of non-American foreign visitors to sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points has , according to new Statistics sa国际传媒 data.
This comes four months after .
In February, the number of non-American foreign visitors was 104,741, up 12.13 per cent from the 93,409 such people who entered sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points in February 2020.
One reason why the February total this year may be for the first time above the pre-pandemic level is that some international visitors may have cancelled or opted against trips to sa国际传媒 in February 2020 out of fear of catching an unknown virus even though the World Health Organization (WHO) did not officially declare that there was a COVID-19 pandemic until March 11, 2020.
If we look at data for February 2019, instead of February 2020, there were 112,129 non-American foreign visitors who entered sa国际传媒 via sa国际传媒 entry points, which would be about seven per cent more than in February.
Regardless, the bad news for sa国际传媒's tourism economy is that there are fewer American visitors than pre-pandemic.
sa国际传媒's cruise sector saw a , but that only helps in the spring, summer and early fall.
Having fewer American visitors coming to sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 kept the overall number of foreign visitors to sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 in February marginally below its pre-pandemic level, according to the data.
Had it not been for the drop in American visitors, sa国际传媒's international-visitor count in February would have been above where it was four years earlier.
Statistics sa国际传媒's data today shows that the number of international visitors coming to sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points in February was down only about 0.18 per cent, to 437,244 from 438,042 in February 2020. In that time frame, the number of U.S. visitors to sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points was 332,503, down nearly 3.52 per cent from the 344,633 Americans who visited sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points in February 2020.
The number of Americans coming to sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points exceeded pre-pandemic levels in June, July, September and October - months when there were cruises.
Since then, in each month, there have been fewer Americans visiting sa国际传媒 through sa国际传媒 entry points than was the case in comparable pre-pandemic months.
The exchange rate has not significantly changed. The Canadian dollar strengthened against the U.S. greenback in November and December, but has since weakened.
sa国际传媒-wide, the number of Americans visitors has never exceeded pre-pandemic monthly levels, but in February the differential was smaller than it has been.
In February, 1,127,588 Americans visited sa国际传媒, down nearly 1.2 per cent from 1,281,300 Americans in February 2020, according to Statistics sa国际传媒.