Same-day car trips by Canadians to the U.S. in March outnumbered similar American trips to Canada by a margin of three to one, figures show. (CBC) (CBC)

The number of foreign visitors to Canada in March was the lowest since record-keeping began in 1972, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

About 2.26 million visits to this country were recorded that month, down 12.6 per cent from the same month a year earlier.

A big drop in American visitors was behind the decline. Only 730,000 same-day car trips were made by U.S. motorists in March. That was down 2.5 per cent from the month before and a 24 per cent plunge from a year ago as the price of gas, a high Canadian dollar and a weak U.S. economy kept Americans close to home.

The number of overseas visits fell by three per cent to 384,000.

"Travel declined in eight of Canada's top 12 overseas markets, with the strongest decreases in travel from Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong," said Statistics Canada.

Canadians, on the other hand, were showing no reluctance to travel, as the number of out-of-country trips rose in every category.

Canadians made 2.1 million same-day car trips to the U.S. in March, up 1.5 per cent from February and an increase of 9.5 per cent from year-ago levels.

The total number of trips to the U.S. rose to 3.8 million.

"The level of Canadian travel to the United States observed in the past six months has been the highest since 1998," Statistics Canada reported.

Overnight plane trips to the U.S. hit a new record high for the fourth month in a row.

Travel by Canadians to countries other than the U.S. also hit a record high.