Tourism spending on culture and sport products, 2016

Tourism spending on culture and sport products provides measures of the total, domestic and export spending by tourists in Canada on culture and sport products. These data were developed as an extension of the Canadian Culture Satellite Account and are a joint initiative of Statistics Canada, other federal agencies, all provincial and territorial governments, as well as non-governmental organizations.

Tourism spending on culture products increased by $49.7 million from 2015 to $1.7 billion in 2016. Culture products represented 1.9% of total tourism spending in Canada. Of their expenditures on culture products, tourists spent the most on performing arts, which includes attending concerts and plays, followed by film and video, crafts and books.

Domestic tourism spending on culture products (that is, expenditures made by Canadian tourists in Canada) totalled $1.2 billion in 2016, or around 70% of total tourism spending on culture products. As a proportion of total domestic tourism spending, culture products accounted for 1.6%. Performing arts (27.9%), crafts (16.7%) and film and video (9.9%) were the top contributors to domestic tourism spending on culture products.

Culture tourism spending by international visitors to Canada rose 8.5% in 2016 to $536.1 million. International visitors spent proportionally more on culture products (2.7% of total tourism exports) than domestic tourists (1.6% of total domestic tourism spending). The largest culture spending categories for international visitors were performing arts, film and video, and original visual art, which includes original paintings and sculptures.

Infographic on Tourism Spending on Culture Products for 2010-2016

The Cultural Satellite Account was developed by Statistics Canada with the support of a diverse group of partners referred to as the Culture Statistics Strategy Consortium which includes the Canada Council of the Arts.

Source: Canadian Heritage