The Annual Expedia Winter Survey

Toronto, ON - In light of new United States travel regulations coming into effect in early January, 2007, that will require those entering the United States to present a valid passport to gain entry into the country, a new Ipsos Reid/expedia.ca survey reveals that a substantial portion of Canadians have not yet prepared for these changes when it comes to their holiday vacation planning.

According to the survey, many Canadians are planning on travelling to the United States this holiday season (11%). But despite the popularity of US travel destinations, half (49%) of all Canadians, and over four in ten of those planning to travel to the US this holiday season (45%) currently do not have a valid passport.

Among the half of Canadians who don't currently have a passport, one-third (35%) say they do plan on applying for a passport for themselves (30%) or a family member (5%) , but most (61%) say they will not be applying a passport.

These new, more stringent, U.S. travel regulations, however, do not appear to be dampening Canadians' enthusiasm for taking a vacation over the holidays, for example:

• One-quarter (27%) say it is likely that rather than spending money on gifts this season they will divert their spending and put it towards a trip for the family over the holidays; and
• Many (44%) families say they have chosen to spend the holiday season away on vacation (not at home) over the past three years. Canadians also seem comfortable using the internet to both research their potential vacations and to book/pay for their travel arrangements, specifically:
• Six in ten (58%) have used the internet to research their vacations; and
• Half (45%) have booked/paid for travel arrangements through the internet

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid/expedia.ca poll conducted from November 7th to November 9th, 2006. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1001 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.