Shopping vacations to U.S. the latest in-thing for Canadians

Shopaholics from Canada are leaving no stone unturned to find the best travel packages or even making efforts to travel on their own to the United States to shop for duty-free goods and take it along with them back to their country. The gradual post-9/11 relaxation along the border has proved to be a great boon for Canadian buyers who are always on the lookout to buy goods at cheaper rates.

Canadian shoppers have now started looking out for cheap vacations deals to appropriately mix leisure with business. Apart from post-9/11 relaxation, a strong Canadian dollar as well as an increase in the value of duty-free goods for Canadian citizens has prompted an inflow of tourists and businesspersons into the United States of late. According to media reports, there has been a remarkable boost in the sales of everything – from milk to vacuum cleaners – in American border stores.

The Canadian government recently published a report saying that overnight travel by Canadian citizens to the United States increased 7.5 percent in June this year in comparison to the same month last year. This is the highest level in 40 years, the report said. According to the government, Canadians took 1.9 million overnight trips into the United States in June. However, overnight trips to Canada by U.S. citizens were up 1.1 percent to 1 million.

Tourism and business leaders from the United States acknowledge that more Canadians took the best advantage of cheap vacation deals and are taking shopping vacations in the United States.

According to the present guidelines starting from June onwards, those Canadians who spend 24 hours in the United States will be able to carry along with them $200 in goods back duty-free, up from $50. However, for those spending 48 hours or more would be allowed to bring back $800 in goods duty-free, a four-fold increase.