In 1995, 29 Clinton County retailers participated in a survey of customers conducted from December 3-9. Forty-eight Clinton County retailers participated in a survey of customers conducted from December 7-15, 1996. This sector includes food/groceries, clothing, building materials, office supplies, general merchandise, furniture, auto dealers and miscellaneous stores. Results of both survey efforts are presented below. The survey periods vary from 1995 to the replication in 1996. The 1995 survey period encompassed only one Saturday and Sunday. The 1996 survey period covered two weekend Saturday-Sunday periods. A total of 197 Canadian consumers responded to the 1996 visitor spending survey, slightly greater than the 189 respondents to the 1995 survey. Close to twice as many retailers participated in the 1996 survey as did for the original report (29). However the number of respondents increased by only eight. The Canadian visitor spending survey instrument is presented in the Appendix to this report.

Results of Surveys of Canadian Retail Customers in Clinton County, New York, 1995, 1996

There appears to be no significant difference in the residence of origin of the Canadians visiting Clinton County in 1995 and 1996.

Whereas 48% of respondents made six or fewer trips to Clinton County in 1995, only 39% of respondents in 1996 came at this rate. Fifty-eight percent of respondents in 1996 had made 12 or more trips to Clinton County compared to only 52% of respondents in 1995. 

Ten percent more of respondents in 1996 had spent at least one overnight as part of their trip to Clinton County than in 1995.

Four percent more respondents in 1996 had spent between $301 and $500, than in 1995. The other ranges of approximate spending per trip do not exhibit much change from 1995 to 1996.

*Respondents could choose more than one response to this question.
** "Other" includes: antiques, motel and food, crafts, camping, toys, books, home items.

The percentage of respondents stating that Gasoline was among their areas of greatest spending doubled from 29% in 1995 to 60% in 1996. The category of food was chosen by 26% more respondents in 1996 than in 1995.

*Respondents could choose more than one response to this question.

Credit cards appear to have become significantly more popular from 1995 to 1996.

Methodological Notes:

On the surface, the Canadian visitor spending survey seemed to suffer from a mediocre response rate in 1996 with 197 responses from 48 participating stores and the mall information booths. The number of participating stores almost doubled from 1994 and yet respondents increased by only eight.

To evaluate the reliability of the results one must consider characteristics of the population from which it was drawn. According to border crossings reports for the week of Dec. 7 through

Dec. 15, 62,505 Canadians entered the U.S. through the 4 ports of entry in Clinton County. This is a significant increase over the 17,982 Canadians that entered during the survey period in 1995. However, this increase is most likely reflective of the fact that the survey period in 1996 covered two Saturdays and Sundays, whereas the period in 1995 only had one weekend. The director of the Champlain INS office estimates that approximately 50% of the December crossings are coming to visit Clinton County. This defines our population as approximately 31,252 individuals. In order to be conservative, we also assume that the variability associated with this population is moderate to high. According to generally accepted methods for the analysis of surveys of this type, a response rate of 0.63% (197/31252) is significant and supports a 10% level of confidence. With this as background, the sample of 197 can be seen as reasonable and we can feel more comfortable drawing conclusions from the results.