Tourism in Toronto set records in 2017 with the arrival of 43 million visitors to the region. For the first time, Toronto overnight stays exceeded the 15 million mark. The number added to the 28 million travelers who stayed for only one day. All of this resulted in the injection of 8.8 billion Canadian dollars ($ 7.14 billion) in the city, representing the largest result ever generated by the tourism industry in the region.

Of the 43 million visitors, five million are from outside Canada. For the seventh consecutive year, visits from the United States increased, with nearly three million American tourists staying overnight in the city, marking 1.8 billion Canadian dollars (US $ 1.46 billion) spent there. Another two million came from international markets, led by China (319,000) and the United Kingdom (263,000). Foreign tourist spending exceeded two billion Canadian dollars (US $ 1.62 billion), an increase of 231 million (US $ 187.4 million) compared to 2016.

According to Tourism Toronto president and CEO Johanne Bélanger, international travelers are seeing more and more Toronto as an exciting urban destination and, according to internal surveys, Canadians themselves also share this view.

Major events were hosted in the region last year. Hotels in the area sold more than ten million overnight stays in 2017, resulting in an average of 76.1% in the local occupancy rate. With Canada’s hub for innovation, technology, finance and business, Toronto has also seen companies and organizations take their conferences and events to Canada’s Downtown, resulting in 951 space-based meetings and celebrations, 400,000 delegations and a profit of CAD $ 634 to the city.

Source: PANROTAS

Photo: Press Release