Canadian land border sales slide while airport sales grow

Andrew Pentol

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Canadian land border duty-free sales in September fell compared with the same month last year, while airport duty-free sales showed growth

Canadian land border duty-free sales fell by 8% to C$13.7m ($14.6m) in September compared with the same month in 2006, according to the latest figures from Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Frontier Duty Free Association (FDFA). Sales from January to September 2006 also fell by 6% to C$113.7m ($121.4m) year on year. FDFA attributed the decline to tighter security checks at some land border crossings into the US, confusion over identification requirements and a reduction in US travel to Canada.

By contrast Canadian airport duty-free sales grew by 39% to C$17.05m ($18.22m) in September compared with the same month last year, while sales from January to September increased by 5% to C$123.6m ($132.1m).

Regional land border figures showed that sales in the Prairie region fell by 1% to C$7.50m ($8.01m) from January to September compared with the same period last year and in September decreased by 3.7% to C$885m ($945m).

Sales in the Pacific region from January to September increased by 12.8% year on year to C$16.2m ($17.3m), while sales in September rose by 1.4% to C$1.9m ($2.0m) compared with the same month last year.

In Ontario sales dropped by 10% to C$65m ($69) from January to September compared with the same period last year and sales in September dropped by 11% to C$7.9m ($8.4m) compared with the same month in 2006.

Sales in the Atlantic/Quebec region fell by 7% to C$25m ($26.7m) over the first nine months of 2007 compared with the same period last year and by 4% to C$3.12m ($3.33m) in September compared with the same month last year.