OTTAWA — Overnight travel to the United States in February was up 1.1% from January, fuelled by a 4.2% increase in overnight plane travel in the month.

Canadian residents took 699,000 overnight plane trips to the United States in February, the highest monthly total since record keeping began in 1972, according to Statistics Canada.

At the same time, Canadian residents took 2.0% fewer same-day car trips and 0.7% fewer overnight car trips in February compared with the previous month.

In the opposite direction, travel from Canada to overseas countries was unchanged at 816,000 trips.

U.S. residents took 1.6 million trips to Canada in February, up 0.8% from January. This included 575,000 same-day car trips to Canada, a 1.7% increase from January.

U.S. residents also took 973,000 overnight trips in February, up 0.4%. This increase was largely due to a 1.8% rise in overnight plane trips, as overnight car travel was down 0.3%.

Travel from overseas countries to Canada declined 1.9% from January.

Of the top 12 overseas markets, eight recorded decreases in travel to Canada in February. The largest percentage decline was in travel from Japan (-10.6%). The United Kingdom, Canada’s most important overseas market, recorded a 6.0% decrease. The largest percentage increase was in travel from Hong Kong (+11.7%).

China registered the second largest increase in February (+6.9%). Chinese residents took 38,000 trips to Canada, recording the highest monthly figure since record keeping began in 1990.