Tourism spending in Canada continued to grow last year with travelers returning to planes and outdoor venues, but it remained much lower than pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, according to Statistics Canada.

The federal agency said in a report released today that Canadians' tourism expenses between October and December 2022 increased for the seventh consecutive quarter, coinciding with the lifting of the last pandemic-related travel restrictions.

These expenses rose by 2.1% between the third and fourth quarters of last year to reach 20.1 billion dollars.

During the entire year of 2022, tourism spending jumped by 45% to 74.4 billion dollars with the return of domestic and international travel.

Spending on air travel also tripled last year compared to 2021, reaching 15.5 billion dollars, or nearly 21% of total tourism expenditures.

However, total tourism spending in 2022 remained more than 20% below its 2019 level, the last full year Canada spent before the pandemic reached it, during which total tourism spending approached 95 billion dollars.

Local spending on tourism activities declined between the third and fourth quarters of last year, but foreign visitors' purchases increased by 17.5%, recording an increase that exceeded the mentioned decline.

Nevertheless, spending by residents in Canada accounted for about three-quarters of total spending, according to the agency.

The agency also added that the tourism sector provided 657,400 jobs in the last quarter of 2022, an increase of 1.5% compared to the third quarter of the year.

Accommodation services, along with food and beverage services and recreation and entertainment, were the largest contributors to the increase in jobs. They also formed the top three areas of tourism spending.

Overall, the economic output of tourism in 2022 reached about 83% of its level for the same period before the pandemic, up from around 71% in 2021. Its share of Canada's total GDP rose to 1.58% in the last quarter of the past year.