While visitor spending reached a record $7 billion in 2023, the number of visitors in Toronto remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to the year-end Toronto’s ‘Visitor Economy: 2023 Market Performance Highlights’ report published by Destination Toronto.

“Toronto has always benefited from a diversified visitor economy with strong visitation coming from within Canada as well as from the US and overseas markets,” said Andrew Weir, Executive VP, Destination Toronto. “Up to this point some international markets have recovered more slowly, and business events and business travel are still lagging behind leisure travel.”

Key stats 

• While visitor spending reached a record $7 billion in 2023, the city is still at 93% of pre-pandemic arrivals.
• Toronto welcomed 8.95 million visitors in 2023, compared to 9.56 million visitors in 2019.
• Domestic travellers have driven a disproportionate share of the growth, accounting for 71% of all visitors.
• International visitors – including the vital US market – have shown slower recovery and remain 25% below 2019 levels.
• Mexico surpassed 2019 visitation; Germany and the UK returned to roughly 75%; and China – the city’s largest overseas market before the pandemic – remains at 24% of prior levels.
• Residents recognize the key role of Toronto’s visitor economy, with 89% saying that the tourism industry is important to Toronto’s economy.

 Meetings/events

Major meetings and events (multi-day events with more than 1,000 attendees) continue to be a core driver of Toronto’s visitor economy. In 2023 major meetings brought 290,000 visitors to Toronto, however both the number of meetings and total attendees remain below pre-pandemic levels, as 2019 saw 444,000 attendees in the city.

Some of the major meetings and events expected to drive visitation to Toronto in 2024 include the NHL All-Star Game in February, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (2,600 attendees in April), the Pediatric Academic Societies (7,000, April), the Collision tech conference (35,000, June), the World Water Congress and Exhibition (3,000, August) and the MedTech Conference (3,000, October).