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Toronto broke visitor records in 2017, 43.7 million visitors spent $8.8 billion

Jan 24, 2018 | 8:09 AM

TORONTO — An industry association says tourism in Toronto is booming, with a record 43.7 million people coming to the city last year and spending more than $8.8 billion.

Tourism Toronto says the numbers represent a 3.6 per cent and 9.1 per cent bump over 2016 respectively.

It says domestic travellers visit Toronto more than any other Canadian city, and notes that Toronto saw 10.4 million overnight domestic visitors last year.

Meanwhile, there were nearly 3 million American overnight visitors and 2.1 million tourists from overseas destinations last year.

The association also says the number of tourists visiting Toronto from China has more than doubled over the last five years.

In 2017, nearly 320,000 Chinese tourists visited the city — the most from any country aside from the U.S. and Canada.

The U.K., on the other hand, sent over slightly fewer visitors in 2017 than 2016 — 263,000 compared to 279,000 the previous year. But the five-year trend for British visitors is still on the upswing, with 32 per cent more Brits visiting Toronto in 2017 than 2012.

 

The Canadian Press