Canadian national airport duty free sales rose by 8% to C$17.7m ($18.1m) in February 2011 and by 11% for both January and February to C$35m ($35.9m), while national land border store sales fell by 3.23% to C$7.2m ($7.4m) in February, with a decrease of 1.84% for January and February combined to C$14.3m ($14.6m).

In terms of regional land border sales, the Prairie Region for February 2011 recorded sales up 1.91% to around C$638,000 ($655,916) in February and a decrease of 0.84% to C$1.2m ($1.2m). This is an increase in sales compared to February 2010 by 1.91%. For January/ February 2011 Prairie region sales equalled C$1.2m ($1.2m) representing a slight decrease of approximately 0.84%.

By comparison the Pacific Region’s sales for February 2011 reached C$1.2m ($1.2m) a decrease of 9.86% while sales in the first two months registered C$2.5m ($2.5m), declining by approximately 0.37%.

Meanwhile, the Ontario region’s sales figure for February 2011 was also down by 2.6% to C$4m ($4.1m), while sales for the first two months also fell by 3.39% to C$8m ($8.2m). 

Lastly, the Atlantic/Quebec region’s land border sales reached C$1.27m ($1.3m) in February, a sales decline of 0.33% compared to February 2010, while sales in the first two months rose by approximately 1.13% to C$2.5m ($2.5m).