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A wide variety of new international flights are encouraging more international tourists to visit Canada and more Canadians to travel abroad, with one notable exception: the United States.

The number of Canadians travelling to the U.S. fell for the third consecutive year in 2016, down 7.7 per cent, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or The loonie effect: Fewer Canadians visit the U.S. for third year in a row, while other international travel soars Back to video

This appears to be the result of the weaker Canadian dollar, which is currently trading around US$0.76. Since 2013, when the loonie was last at par, the number of Canadians travelling to the U.S. by car has fallen by 31.3 per cent to 31.8 million in 2016. However, the U.S. is still the top international destinations for Canadians, accounting for three-quarters of trips abroad.

The trend is the opposite for American visitors to Canada, which rose 8.3 per cent in 2016 and 8.4 per cent in 2015. This bucked the trend of the preceding 15 years, which saw small increases or declines, Stats Can said.