Visitors to Toronto spent $8.8 billion last year, the highest amount ever recorded in the city, according to a new report from Destination Toronto.
Canadians were largely responsible for priming the city’s tourism engine, spending $5.4 billion here and accounting for about two-thirds of the total nine million overnight visitors to the city in 2024.
“It just shows how important tourism is to the economy of the city,” said Destination Toronto president and CEO Andrew Weir of the numbers, although he acknowledges some of the dollar increase is due to inflation.
Tourism isn’t “always thought of as one of the top sectors or industries in Toronto, but it helps drive and support so many of the other sectors in the city that I think it’s important to draw attention to that,” he said. Weir’s organization is a non-profit that promotes tourism here.
Overall, overnight visitors were up about 400,000 over the year before, although that level is still below pre-pandemic visits, which totalled 9.6 million in 2019.
The Taylor Swift concerts in November provided some of the bounce-back in 2024, with visitors to Toronto from the U.S. increasing by 38 per cent that month compared to November a year before.
But other big events such as conventions also brought an influx of travellers, said Weir, a change from the initial years coming out of the pandemic when attendance at meetings was lower.
“Some of the meetings we had last year … had record attendance,” said Weir, including the MedTech Conference, the largest medical technology conference in North America, which had its highest attendance ever in Toronto, the first time the conference was held in a city outside the U.S.
“It’s a great example of how Toronto is well positioned for U.S.-based meeting planners to attract high levels of attendance,” he said. Currently, overnight visitors from the U.S. to Toronto are at 86 per cent of 2019 levels.
Travel from overseas to Toronto increased in 2024 compared to 2023, with visits from international markets reaching 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Originating countries where Toronto saw some gains include the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, the U.K. and Japan.
Mexico though took a substantial step backward, said Weir, a decline he said was due in part to federal regulations introduced in February. New requirements were placed on electronic travel authorizations (ETAs), typically necessary for air travel to Canada, and travellers from the country who aren’t eligible for an ETA were required to get a visitor visa.
Mexico was ”the one international market that had actually surpassed 2019 levels and it did that in ’23,” said Weir. “It came back very fast. And then in early 2024, when the federal government brought in the visa requirements for Mexican travellers, that created a significant setback.” Visitors from the country remain at 31 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
China is another country where Toronto hasn’t seen huge gains. The country left Canada off a list of destinations approved for travel by tour groups last year, with the result that China — Toronto’s number one source of overseas tourists in 2019 — is still half what it was, said Weir.
But Toronto has opportunities to rebound in other areas in the coming years.
Big events, like the Swift concerts or the FIFA World Cup in 2026, are driving tourism like never before, said Weir.
“Travel now has become less about what attractions are in the city and more about what events are on around,” he said.
As Weir’s organization shifts from a recovery mindset to seeking growth, he said that Destination Toronto will work with airlines, tour-operator partners and media in markets like Germany, the U.K. and Mexico to stimulate high value leisure travel. The organization will also focus on bringing major meetings and conventions to the city.
Weir said Torontonians can help by championing the city.
“When you have a city that has people from everywhere, it means you’ve got connections to everywhere,” said Weir. “The more that Torontonians as a whole are talking proudly about their city, or sharing their stories and inviting people to come experience it with them, that really helps power the visitor economy overall.”
