New Family Day Holiday Inspires Many
Ontarians To Make Travel Plans

Toronto, ON - With the Ontario Government having instituted a Family Day holiday for February, a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Expedia.ca reveals that many Ontarians plan to take advantage of the extra day off and to do some travelling. In fact, nearly one third (31%) of Ontarians indicate that they will take a short getaway over the long weekend (25%) or go on a major trip away from home during that time (6%).

Compared to the other provinces that have a Family Day holiday - Alberta and Saskatchewan - Ontarians are only slightly less likely to get away than Albertans (33%) and slightly more likely to get away than those living in Saskatchewan (30%).

But most provinces do not have a Family Day holiday. To this effect, Quebecers are the most likely Canadians across the country to say that they would take advantage of the opportunity to get away over the long-weekend holiday (48%), which is considerably more than any other province. Four in ten (41%) Atlantic Canadians say they'd use this time to get away, while four in ten (38%) British Columbians say they'd take the opportunity to travel.

Thinking about travel intentions of Canadians as a whole between January and March, two in ten (21%) Canadians who are intending on travelling in the next three months plan to travel to the US, while 17% will go some place south but not the U.S., and 18% intend to go to another part of the world. However, some Canadians intend to stay within their own province (8%) or travel to another province (8%)

• Albertans are most likely (27%) to say that they will go to the States, compared to Ontarians (25%), Atlantic Canadians (22%), British Columbians (21%), residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (20%) and Quebecers (14%).
• Older Canadians have a higher propensity (27%) to say that they will be going to the United States in the new year, while middle-aged (20%) and younger Canadians (17%) are less likely to indicate this. Younger Canadians, though, are more likely (22%) to indicate that they will be going to a sun destination outside of the U.S. than are middle-aged (17%) and older Canadians (14%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Expedia.ca from Nov 6 to Nov 8, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 Canadians was interviewed online. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult 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 that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Sean Simpson
Research Manager
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
(416) 572-4474
[email protected]

About Ipsos Reid
Ipsos Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader, the country's leading provider of public opinion research, and research partner for loyalty and forecasting and modelling insights. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos Reid employs more than 600 research professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in the country, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and online panels. Ipsos Reid's marketing research and public affairs practices offer the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada, all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, Ipsos Reid offers syndicated information or custom solutions across key sectors of the Canadian economy, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, retail, and technology & telecommunications. Ipsos Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

To learn more, please visit www.ipsos.ca.

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