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2009 was a troubled and troubling year. Many factors, including the H1N1 flu virus outbreak and the global recession, took their toll on the tourism industry. Shards of light were few and far between, but the fast-approaching Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games offered hope for a boost in 2010.

You’ll find this analysis and more in the Tourism Snapshot 2009 Year-in-Review just released by the Research department of the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC).

Here are some key findings:

• International visitors made 15.6 million trips to this country in ’09, down 22% from Canada’s peak year in 2002.

• Of that group, 8.5 million visits came from people ages 45 and over, which is now Canada’s largest visitor age demographic.

• Overall visitors splashed the cash while they were here: $11.5 billion rattled through the tills, representing an average $738 per trip.

• Total tourism gross domestic product (GDP) hit $29 billion last year, which represented 2% of the national GDP overall.

• Canada’s international travel deficit improved by 3% on ’08, totalling $12.2 billion.

• Jobs felt the pinch in ’09: employment in Canada’s tourism sector fell 2% year-on-year to 649,900.

• US overnight leisure is still Canada’s foundation market, with 64% of all overnight travellers. However, the total of 9.9 million visitors signified a 6% decline on 2008.

• Although US business travellers spent $1.4 billion, 15% less than ’09, meetings, conference and incentive travel (MC&IT) visitors posted the highest average spend per night at $243.

• It was a bad year for the Brits: hit hard by the global economic downturn, the UK market posted the most significant fall (-18%) in traveller numbers among CTC’s core European markets.

• China was the only one of CTC’s key markets to post a rise in trip numbers, albeit a modest 0.4% over 2008.

• On average, Japanese travellers came second only to the US in spending the most per night ($111) last year.

• The Mexico market was really down in the dumps: 37% fewer trips in ’09 was the harshest fall in CTC’s key markets.

Read the Tourism Snapshot 2009 Year-in-Review in full.