More than 28 million travellers visited Toronto in 2025, an annual record for the Big Smoke, according to a new report from Destination Toronto, an organization that promotes the city’s tourism industry.
The city saw 9.1 million overnight visitors last year, and 19.1 million day trippers — about 600,000 more than 2024 — who were attracted to the city, in part, because of major events such as the Blue Jays’ run to the World Series and a new massive outdoor concert venue at Downsview.
“What we’ve seen increasingly is that events are some of the most important demand drivers for a destination,” said Andrew Weir, president and CEO of Destination Toronto. “People will choose to travel somewhere because they have a ticket for an event. It could be a concert, it could be a baseball game, it could be a conference they’re attending.”
Travellers to Toronto poured $9.1 billion into the city’s economy, a new high that surpasses last year’s record spending of $8.8 billion, according to the report, driven primarily by domestic and overseas visitor expenditures.
Canadians accounted for 90 per cent of the visitors to Toronto, with U.S. travel down in the wake of trade tensions, from two million visitors in 2024 to 1.9 million last year, a decrease of six per cent.
Twenty-five million Canadians visited Toronto in 2025, up from 24.3 million in 2024.
International visits were up 8 per cent, an increase that is perhaps not surprising to Destination Toronto, a private non-profit organization funded by the city, which markets Toronto not only in Canada, but also in countries such as Germany, the U.K. and anywhere it sees the potential to attract more travellers.
Travel from the U.K. and Germany continued to see strong growth in 2025, with arrivals here up 12 per cent and 10 per cent year-over-year respectively, according to the report. The number of visitors from Mexico, China, South Korea and Japan also had double digit per cent increases in 2025 compared to 2024.
But, Destination Toronto noted that these numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Conferences and meetings in Toronto were another big attraction, posting a 51 per cent increase in attendees in 2025 compared to 2024.
Weir said Toronto is “one of the most significant convention destinations in North America” because it’s a global hub for key economic sectors that include tech, life sciences, finance and AI.
Toronto is also easy to get to, with direct flights from cities across the U.S., as well as globally, said Weir, while having enough hotels and off-site venues for attendees that make the city attractive to meeting planners, which is who Destination Toronto markets the city to.
In 2025, Toronto hosted 74 major meetings and conventions in 2025 — 11 more than in 2024 — which attracted 378,000 delegates and generated $982 million in economic impact, according to the report.
In a statement in the report, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the city’s “dynamic neighbourhoods, rich cultural offerings, globally-inspired food scene and major events and festivals continue to draw visitors from around the world.”
“With the FIFA World Cup 2026 coming to Toronto, we’re excited to welcome the world and showcase everything our city has to offer,” the mayor said.
The statistics that Destination Toronto uses as a basis for the report come from a number of sources, said Weir, including StatCan, which provides the number of border crossings, the Conference Board of Canada which has estimates of domestic visitors, Destination Canada’s spending model, as well as hotel data and data from internal sources.
