Ontario Tourism Minister Jim Bradley joined Toronto Mayor David Miller and representatives of Tourism Toronto and the CN Tower at the Ontario Travel Information Centre at Dundas and Yonge to…
Ontario Tourism Minister Jim Bradley joined Toronto Mayor David Miller and representatives of Tourism Toronto and the CN Tower at the Ontario Travel Information Centre at Dundas and Yonge to launch three new initiatives to encourage more visitors to discover the city and the province.
As part of Canadian Tourism Week, they unveiled a mobile travel unit, a permanent Toronto City Desk at the downtown Toronto Ontario Travel Information Centre, and Toronto tourism maps to be distributed at information kiosks and concierge desks in city hotels. They also celebrated the first anniversary of TAPintoTO!, Toronto’s volunteer greeter program.
“Toronto is one of Ontario’s main tourism destinations and an important gateway to the rest of the province for many visitors,” said Bradley. “There is a huge potential for more tourism activity. These new initiatives that increase the amount of tourism information available will help get our visitors to do more and spend more.”
More than half of Toronto’s overnight visitors come to see friends and relatives and go shopping. But only 10 to 20 per cent go to a park, see a historic site, visit a museum or art gallery.
“This is a great city and the 19 million visitors to it each year confirm that fact,” said Miller. “I am delighted that so many people, other orders of government and private businesses are working together this summer to help these visitors discover all that Toronto offers. We will send them back home feeling that their money was well spent, and their visit here was far too short!”
Support for this Toronto initiative is the latest way the McGuinty government is working to help Ontario families that look to the tourism industry for other jobs and opportunities.
Other initiatives include:
- Arranging the North American premiere of the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place, expected to attract more than 300,000 visitors this summer
- Supporting the new musical production The Lord of the Rings, expected to bring $700 million a year in tourism benefits to Ontario
- Maintaining a province-wide system of Ontario Travel Information Centres that provided tourism information to 1.8 million visitors last year
- A $4 million multi-media advertising campaign in U.S. border states, Quebec and Ontario to promote the summer tourism season
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