Tourism drove $8.8 billion into Toronto’s economy last year, the highest level of visitor spending ever recorded in the city, according to the year-end report Toronto’s Visitor Economy: 2024 Market Performance Highlights published Monday by Destination Toronto. The nine million overnight visitors to Toronto last year are the most since the pandemic, though still 600,000 fewer than the number of visitors welcomed in 2019, said the report.
“Toronto’s visitor economy is proving once again to be an engine for the city, drawing almost 9 billion dollars of new money into our economy from across Canada, across the border and around the world,” said Andrew Weir, President and CEO of Destination Toronto.
“The tax revenue generated by visitors last year was greater than $2 billion. In fact, without tourism, every family in Toronto would have had to pay $1,850 more just to maintain the same levels of government services across all three levels of government.”
While the domestic market has essentially fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, travel from international markets is progressing steadily and driving disproportionate value; international visitors tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic visitors. Toronto welcomed 2.7 million international visitors in 2024—a 7 per cent increase over the previous year—with strong performance from the U.S., the U.K. and Germany. International travellers accounted for 30 per cent of total visitors and 38 per cent of all visitor spending in 2024, said the organization.
“Toronto is the most diverse city in the world—with hundreds of vibrant, thriving neighbourhoods. In 2024, we welcomed Taylor Swift, the NHL All-Star Game and of course every year, TIFF, the largest film festival in North America. With hundreds of conferences, events, festivals and visitors bringing almost $9 billion, tourism is enormously valuable for our city. Come visit Toronto!” said Mayor Olivia Chow in a statement.
Destination Toronto said visitor spending continues to recirculate throughout Toronto’s economy, producing an overall economic impact of $13 billion in 2024. Last year’s study Economic Impact of Visitors in Toronto traced the full impact of visitor spending, including induced and indirect spending across industries like finance, insurance and real estate, utilities and health care.
“Major meetings and events (multi-day events with more than 1,000 attendees) brought nearly 250,000 visitors in 2024, including the NHL All-Star Game, Pediatric Academic Societies, World Water Congress and Exhibition, and MedTech Conference. In 2025, major meetings and events are projected to draw 300,000 visitors, with attendees coming to the city for the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, American Bar Association Annual Meeting and more. In 2024, Destination Toronto and its partners secured new business that will bring more than 365,000 visitors in the coming years, explained the organization.
Looking Ahead
The outlook for 2025 is positive, with growth in the visitor economy expected to maintain momentum and a number of openings, developments and anniversaries planned, added Destination Toronto.
- Hotel openings: TOOR Hotel Toronto, Union Hotel Toronto, NOBU Hotel Toronto, and Le Meridien Pinnacle Toronto Hotel all projected to open in 2025.
- Airlines: Virgin Atlantic is set to return to the Canadian market after a decades-long absence, resuming its Toronto-London route on March 30, 2025.
- Anniversaries: Hilton Toronto, Chelsea Hotel Toronto and TIFF are all celebrating 50 years, The Bata Shoe Museum is celebrating 30 and DesignTO is celebrating 15.
- Sports: Women’s professional soccer league Northern Super League will make its debut and the WWE Elimination Chamber is coming to the Rogers Centre.
- Developments: A new roller coaster AlpenFury is opening at Canada’s Wonderland, Rogers Stadium is set to open at the former Downsview Airport Lands, the Gardiner Museum will unveil its reimagined space, and the Port Lands will continue its transformation including Ookwemin Minising.
- Airports: U.S. pre-clearance is coming to Billy Bishop City Airport to allow U.S.-bound travellers to clear U.S. Customs, Immigration, and Agriculture inspection before takeoff.
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