Tourism in Toronto may be slightly down compared to a few years ago, but we’re still making records. Nine million overnight visitors to Toronto drove a record $8.8 billion into the city’s economy in 2024 — the highest level of visitor spending ever recorded in Toronto, according to a new report by Destination Toronto. Overnight visitors to Toronto were the most since the pandemic, but still less than the 9.6 million visitors welcomed in 2019.
We can credit the spending record mostly to our fellow Canadians — they were a huge part of Toronto’s tourism boost last year. About 6.3 million Canadian domestic visitors were responsible for spending $5.4 billion in Toronto — so nearly two thirds of the nine million overnight visitors!
Still, the report shows that international visitors tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic visitors. Toronto welcomed 2.7 million international visitors in 2024 (a seven per cent increase compared to the previous year), contributing to 38 per cent of total spending. Most of these international visits came from the U.S., the U.K. and Germany.
“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,” Andrew Weir, president and CEO of Destination Toronto, said in a statement.
Overall, spending by our American neighbours down south was five per cent below where it was in 2019 but increased 10 per cent compared to 2023. Interestingly, the number of American tourists increased by 38 per cent last year November compared to November 2023, perhaps in part due to Taylor Swift’s six-night/two-weekend Eras Tour concert performances at the Rogers Centre last November.
More than 500,000 visitors flocked to the downtown core over Swift’s 10-day stay. According to data from Canadian commerce provider Moneris, during the 10 days surrounding Swift’s concerts, spending in downtown Toronto increased by 45 per cent week-over-week, with a 49 per cent increase in spending at clothing stores and a 102 per cent increase for specialty and accessory stores.
But Swifties aren’t the only ones to praise. Major meetings and multi-day events with more than 1,000 attendees brought in nearly 250,000 visitors to the city last year. Perhaps not as exciting as watching Swift perform “Anti-Hero” — but the NHL All-Star Game, the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting, the World Water Congress and Exhibition and the MedTech Conference were also huge draws to the city.
Visitor spending continues to recirculate throughout the economy, with the initial $8.8 billion producing an overall economic impact of $13 billion in the city through induced and indirect spending across industries like finance, insurance, real estate, utilities and even healthcare.
“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,” Weir added.
Toronto may not have Swift this year, but major meetings and events are projected to draw in 300,000 visitors to the city in 2025, with attendees coming for the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in July, the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining in August, the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in August, and more.
We can also expect tourists for a few hotel openings, including NOBU Hotel Toronto, TOOR Hotel Toronto, Union Hotel Toronto and Le Meridien Pinnacle Toronto Hotel. Toronto also has a big year for sports ahead: the Women’s Professional Soccer League, Northern Super League, will make its debut, and the WWE Elimination Chamber is expected to draw huge crowds at the Rogers Centre.
A new roller coaster, AlpenFury, is opening at Canada’s Wonderland, which also may draw in some additional visitors. Rogers Stadium is set to open at the former Downsview Airport Lands (Coldplay will perform at the stadium this July and Oasis will perform in August — both concerts will be their only Canadian performances for their respective tours), and the Port Lands will continue its transformation, including the newly named Ookwemin Minising Island (formerly known as the Villiers Island precinct).
