Toronto becoming popular international destination for meeting-goers
Toronto tourism officials say the city took another step forward as a global tourism destination in 2007 by seeing a record of 10,660,000 overnight visitors.
Tourism Toronto’s marketing and sales programs focused on attracting “high value customers,” including overseas travelers and major conventions, helping offset challenges such as new passport rules and the rising Canadian dollar.
“Toronto is showing its resilience as a global destination,” said David Whitaker, president and CEO of Tourism Toronto. He added:
“In a year when the forecasts started out rather dire, in the end more visitors came, hotel occupancy rose and our convention business continued to be a bedrock for today and the future.”
In 2007 visitors to Toronto spent more than $4.5 billion on hotels, restaurants, attractions, performing arts, shopping, taxis and meeting facilities, illustrating the continued importance of tourism as an economic driver across the region.
Overseas visitors remain an important area of growth for Toronto.
Mexico and China were the fastest growing international markets at approximately 15% annual growth each. Toronto’s largest overseas market is the UK., which grew by two per cent in 2007 to approximately 280,000 visitors.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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