The Tourism and Hospitality industry has been the hardest hit sector of the economy since March 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Collectively, the tourism industry remains resilient and hopeful as the sector moves towards recovery. Once again, Toronto is eager to provide visitors with exceptional customer service, attractions, music festivals, and events backed by some of Canada’s best convention and sports facilities.
The Tourism and Hospitality industry statistics listed below reflect pre-pandemic numbers. With the industry’s commitment to recovery, as the visitor economy reopens, this vibrant, dynamic and world-class city strives to welcome back over 27.5 million visitors annually.
(Source: Toronto’s Visitor Economy, Tourism Toronto, 2019).
An estimated 70,000 jobs are supported by visitor spending (both direct and indirect jobs). The number of people employed with jobs supported by visitor spending has increased by 10,000 over five years.
While the majority of jobs are in industries directly serving visitors, significant benefits accrue in sectors like finance, insurance, and real estate from selling to tourism businesses and employees.
(Source: Toronto’s Visitor Economy, Tourism Toronto, 2019).
Toronto offers a wide variety of tourism options:
The Premier Ranked Tourist Destination framework was developed by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism to provide a means for tourism destinations to define their competitive position within the tourism marketplace. Premier-ranked is not a formal tourism designation but, rather an internal tourism goal to help destinations become “better than the rest” by improving their viability and competitiveness as a place people want to visit.
Please note that We’ve Been Expecting You (WBEY) training is not currently available. Please email visitorservices@toronto.ca for information on other available information resources.
‘We’ve Been Expecting You (WBEY)’ is a unique hospitality excellence program that helps:
Free training is offered to members of the hospitality, tourism and service industries, or anyone who works with visitors to the City. (Not currently available)
WBEY is a joint project presented by the City of Toronto, the Province of Ontario and Tourism Toronto and is free to participants.
Welcome to Toronto…We’ve Been Expecting You program is designed around four sets of behaviours and actions. When employed together, they create memorable experiences for visitors.
Promote events, attractions or tourism businesses distributing information and brochures through:
Email infotogo@toronto.ca for details.
Maps
Email visitorservices@toronto.ca for details.
Promotional opportunities are available on select Tourism Services programs and publications. Email visitorservices@toronto.ca for more information.
Organizations and businesses can submit their event, exhibit and festival information to the Toronto Festival & Events Calendar for promotion to the public.
Email spevcal@toronto.ca for more information.