A new study of downtown Toronto commerce shows the tourism industry has bounced back nicely from the pandemic. But we’re not out of the woods yet.
The Toronto Star on Thursday ran a story that talked about a University of Toronto School of Cities study that looked at cellphone usage in the city centre to determine the number of daily visitors to various types of buildings. Looking at 2019 levels versus 2023, the study found that Toronto’s hospitality buildings had a 100% recovery rate in terms of visitors. The recovery rate for office buildings was only 69%, and for retail just 59%.
The Star quoted Winnie Schroder, area director of sales and marketing for the Omni King Edward Hotel as saying that things aren’t quite back in travel, but that it’s close.
“In 2022 we saw pent-up demand for leisure travel, especially domestically, and last year we saw it level out as people were able to travel abroad.”
It’s good news. But it’s not quite great news.
“It’s a little early to be taking a victory lap in terms of tourism recovery,” Andrew Weir, executive vice president of Destination Toronto, told me in a phone call this morning. “There have been elements of a recovery, no question. But it’s largely driven by the domestic market.”
Weir said domestic tourism began to recover a little in Toronto in 2021, and was quite strong in 2022. The next year was fairly flat, however, as Canadians felt confident in making international plans and began packing flights to Paris and London.
The Toronto Sign at Toronto City Hall. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“Canadians travelled more in 2023, and that’s great, but as domestic returned to normal the international travel (to Toronto) wasn’t there to pick up the slack,” he said. “The U.S. is starting to come back. European visitation is starting to come back. But most are still at only 70% of pre-pandemic levels.”
A much bigger issue is the slow recovery of inbound tourism from China.
“China was our number one international (overseas) market prior to the pandemic. We had 300,000 Chinese visitors to Toronto. But we’re only at 10% of that.”
Hotel occupancy or demand is an important measurement in the hotel business, but visitor spending is more important. A tourist from Buffalo or Peterborough doesn’t stay as long or spend as much as the average visitor from Beijing.
“International visitors spend more, do more, stay longer, and do more to help our businesses,” Weir pointed out.
Overall, hotel demand in Toronto is still down roughly 12% from 2019, he said.
“There’s been a degree of recovery but it’s not complete. And we certainly haven’t seen any growth over the last four years,” a strong contrast to the good times tourism saw prior to the pandemic.
AIR PRICES DUE TO TUMBLE IN CANADA? ONE EXPERT SAYS SO
Air travel has been very expensive in Canada for some time. But competition from Canadian airlines is expected to intensify in the next few months, and one expert says he’s expecting some bargains to be found.
“The price wars in Canada are going to be something we haven’t seen in years,” Montreal-based aviation expert John Gradek told the Calgary Herald.
“The guys who are going to be really pushing the envelope this year are going to be Porter (Airlines),” which he expects will be “cranking up capacity … to really take on both Air Canada and WestJet.”
“Consumers are going to be laughing all the way to the bank,” Gradek said. “The problem is the fares will be so low that it won’t be compensatory to the carriers that are flying those fares.”
And that could mean consolidation in the industry. Experts have been saying for months that Canada probably can’t keep all of its current airlines. Likely the most vulnerable are Calgary-based Lynx Air, an ultra-low-cost airline, and Edmonton-based Flair Airlines, also an ultra-low-cost outfit.
If you’re looking for cheap air fares, it would seem the next few months might be your best time to book.
ROYAL CARIBBEAN’S ICON OF THE SEAS SAILS INTO MIAMI
Royal Caribbean International’s highly anticipated Icon of the Seas took centre stage as it arrived in Miami for the first time on Wednesday, Jan. 10
Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas.
The ship is slated to make its official debut Jan. 27.
Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship ever built (1198 feet in length and weighing in at 250,800 gross tons) and has 20 decks, 40 restaurants, bars and lounges, and 2,805 staterooms. It can carry 5,610 guests and 2,350 crew; nearly 8,000 people in all.
The ship features eight neighborhoods, including Central Park, Chill Island, Royal Promenade and Surfside. There also are a record-breaking six waterslides at the Category 6 Water Park, plus nine whirlpools, seven swimming pools and what’s said to be the first suspended infinity pool at sea.
