OTTAWA — Canadians were heading overseas in big numbers in March, according to Statistics Canada.

Canadian residents took 4.8 million trips in March, an increase of 0.3% compared with February. This rise was largely due to the number of trips to overseas countries, which was up 2.6% to 912,000.

The number of same-day automobile trips made by Canadian residents to the United States rose 1.2% to 2.1 million. However, overall travel to the United States remained relatively stable at 3.9 million trips.

Travel to Canada in March rose 0.7% compared with February to 2.2 million trips. Travel from the United States accounted for 1.8 million trips in the month, an increase of 2.0%.

Travel from overseas countries decreased 4.2% to 431,000 trips. A decrease in travel from France (-20.8%) was responsible for the majority of this decline.