Toronto breaks tourism record in 2017

Toronto tourists set a new tourism record in 2017, spending close to $9 billion dollars in the region last year, according to figures released Wednesday.

Approximately 43,730,000 visitors came to Toronto last year, a 3.6 per cent increase from 2016, Tourism Toronto said in its new report.

Visitors spent a total of $8,840,000,000, up $700 million from last year.

The city saw 28,200,000 same-day visitors and 15,530,000 overnight visitors.

An estimated 26,700,000 same-day travellers and 10,400,000 overnight visitors came from other Canadian cities.

Toronto saw 2,973,000 overnight visitors from the United States who spent a total of about $1,763,000,000.

About 2,150,000 overnight visitors came from overseas, spending more than $2 billion.

The city also saw a spike in visits from Mexico, with 75,000 visitors in 2017, up from 44,000 the previous year.

“Toronto is kind of having a moment and there is a lot of momentum. We see it with everything from Amazon and Sidewalk Labs, and the music coming out of here, and our sports teams’ success,”Andrew Weir, executive vice-president of Tourism Toronto, told CP24 Wednesday.

Large business conferences and the Invictus Games were among the events that drove visitors to the city last year.

“People are sensing that there is something exciting happening here and that translates into interest and people want to come visit,” Weir said.

Hotels in the region sold more than 10,000,000 room nights last year and had an occupancy rate of 76.1 per cent, according to Toronto’s tourism agency.

Weir said the city is benefiting from the “Canada effect” right now.

“Being Canadian means something in the world right now,” he said.

“We have a great advantage as being the largest city and the largest destination in Canada. When people from overseas markets think about travel, they think country first so they think Canada and our job is to make sure that Toronto becomes the anchor for that trip to Canada.”

Weir said he hopes Toronto continues to try to attract big events and applauded the city for considering a bid to be one of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup.

“We’ve got to keep looking for the big events and the World Cup is a great opportunity,” he said.  “This is a city that should be hosting major events.”

Speaking about the recent tourism numbers at city hall on Wednesday, Mayor John Tory congratulated all of those involved in attracting tourist to the city.

“People want to be here and they are coming here in increasing numbers from around the world and that is really good for our economy and really good for our city’s reputation,” Tory said.

“As they continue to come, that in turn will produce more people who will come in future years either because they come back or because they tell their friends. That’s the most powerful kind of reference we can have beyond all the advertising and the hype is just to have people telling their friends Toronto’s a great place to go.”