The results are in from Snowbird Advisor’s latest Travel Intention Survey!

The survey, conducted in late October, was completed by over 4,000 Snowbird Advisor members and provides insights into travel intentions for the current snowbird season.

There were some interesting takeaways from the survey, in particular, that while snowbird travel to the U.S. will see a moderate decline this year, snowbirds as a group are far more likely to return to the U.S. this year than other types of travellers.

The survey also revealed a significant increase in snowbirds spending this season in international destinations, with almost double the number of snowbirds travelling to international destinations vs. last season. 

The majority of Canadian snowbirds will still be going to the U.S. this winter, but there’s a growing trend by snowbirds to travel to international destinations such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Portugal, Spain, the Caribbean and others.

Here are the highlights:

• 70% of respondents intend to spend this winter in the U.S. vs. 82% of respondents who spent last winter in the U.S. This represents a 15% decline in year-over-year snowbird travel to the U.S., a much smaller decline than other travel segments to the U.S. have experienced.
• 23% of respondents intend to spend this winter in non-U.S. destinations vs. 12% of respondents who spent last winter in non-U.S. destinations. This represents a 92% increase in year-over-year snowbird travel to non-U.S. destinations.
• 7% of respondents intend to stay home this winter, vs. 6% who stayed home last winter.
• 54% of respondents who spent last winter in the U.S. but are not returning to the U.S. this winter indicated that they would consider returning to the U.S. in the future.
• 62% of respondents said they intend to spend between 3 – 6 months in their winter destinations this year, vs. 64% last year, which is virtually unchanged, indicating snowbirds do not intend to shorten the amount of time they spend away this year.
• 6% of those surveyed indicated that they have sold their snowbird vacation property in the past 12 months.

We would like to send a big thank you out to all members who participated in the survey, as your feedback helps us to provide tips, tools, resources and services that are most helpful to our members based on your needs and travel patterns.