Visitors injected billions of dollars into Toronto’s economy last year, a new study finds, but tourists have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels amid signs of slowing growth.
Last year, 88 per cent of visitors were Canadian, while nearly seven per cent came from the U.S. and 4.5 per cent from overseas. The percentages for the latter two were higher before the pandemic. Carroll cited the extra resources required – emergency services, for example – to handle the crowds “as hotels fill up.”
A big drop in visitors from China – Toronto’s No. 1 tourism market with more than 300,000 arrivals in 2019 – has also dented the figures. The steep drop-off stems from China’s decision to not add Canada to its list of countries authorized as travel spots for tour groups, even as the U.S., U.K., Australia and others made it onto the list last summer.
Nonetheless, leisure tourism has rebounded more than the corporate kind. The sluggish return of trade conventions and business travel more broadly accounts for much of the plateauing in tourism this year.