By Rosanna Caira
TORONTO ─ Destination Toronto and the Greater Toronto Hotel Association (GTHA) joined forces this year to present the annual business outlook session. The event took place on September 16 at the Fairmont Royal York and attracted 400 attendees, who attended to gain better understanding of how Toronto is faring.
Kicking off the session, titled Navigating Together, Andrew Weir, president and CEO of the organization welcomed hotel professionals and shared some key takeaways. Weir stressed that tourism is sensitive to economy cycles, pointing to the fact that Toronto is currently in the midst of an economic slowdown, with the pervasive headwinds being lower population growth, declining household spending and rising unemployment. Weir stated that interest-rate cuts will likely help growth pick up in 2025. Among the reasons he cited for the continued downturn is the return to the downtown core is still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels and after hours and weekend are key to the recovery of the downtown core.
Pointing to some positive news, Destination Toronto reported that TTC ridership is inching towards pre-pandemic levels, pointing to a recent announcement that the TTC is increasing service levels and expects transit system to be back to 80 to 90 per cent of ridership pre-pandemic. Office occupancy remains below pre-pandemic levels but with more return to mandates now in place, this is expected to improve in future.
Also, on a positive note, the Taylor Swift Eras Tour dates are fuelling great hotel demand and will help the city finish the year in a better state.
Sara Anghel, president and CEO of GTHA, followed the Destination Toronto presentation, touching on the work her group has been doing to advocate for the hotel industry. “We prioritize engagement with key government stakeholder on sector priorities; have raised the awareness of GTHA strategic priorities with industry partners and government audiences, and we support government policies that align with GTHA and hotel industry objectives,” said Anghel.
Hotel fundamentals, while not as buoyant as expected this year, have been on solid footing according to Nicole Nguyen, SVP, Hotels, CBRE who spent a few minutes bringing attendees up to speed on the state of Toronto occupancy rate and RevPAR. “It’s been a soft year,” she said but she believes 2025 will be fare stronger. Domestic business remains four per cent off 2019 levels. Nguyen stated believes the industry will have to wait until 2027 to see Toronto levels hit 2019 levels. She also reported that overseas travel to Canada is down by two per cent but expected to recover by 2026. “In 2023, we had 44.8 million passengers pass by Pearson, which exceeded 2016 levels,” said the analyst, stressing that air connectivity continues to impact.
Nguyen spent a few moments highlighting the supply of new hotels in many of the major GTA regions, noting that GTA West has strong supply for the next year with five new properties slated to open including Candlewood Suites, Hyatt Place & Hotel in Mississauga Airport, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Townplace Suites Brampton and Four Points by Sheraton in Oakville, all of which are scheduled to open in 2025. Similarly, five new hotels are expected to open their doors in GTA East/North next year: Fairfield Marriott Inn Suites in Newmarket, Ont; Holiday Inn in Toronto North York, Home2Suires in Vaughan, Ont., Townplace Suites in Vaughan, Ont.; Sandman Signature Markham and Toronto Plaza Hotel. Only two hotels opened their doors in Toronto this past year – the Revery Downtown Curio, and the new Toor Hotel, while the much-anticipated Nobu Hotel is schedule to open in early 2025 as is the Hotel Riu Plaza, both of which have been marred by various delays.
Nguyen also provided an outlook for 2024, which is expected to wind up with occupancy of 66 per cent, ADR of $203 and RevPAR of $134. Next year, which all speakers believe will be stronger on all fronts should finish with a 66 per cent occupancy, $208 ADR and a RevPAR of $137.
Closing out the morning, Sharon Bollenbach, executive director of the World Cup Hosting 2026, spoke about the upcoming FIFA World Cup, highlighting how the 16 cities hosting the World Cup can leverage the moment.
“This is the best single sporting event in the world,” she boasted, adding that Canada is one of three countries that will host various games alongside Mexico and the U.S. “This is the first time we have 48 teams and 104 matches. It’s never been done before.”
With a slogan “The World in a City,” Bollenbach said this is a huge opportunity for Toronto. “There’s no other city better suited to host FIFA,” said Bollenbach. “Any country that comes out to play will have a huge following in the city,” pointing to Toronto’s diversity as a huge drawing card. FIFA qualifying events began in 2024, the World Cup Final Draw takes place in 2025 and then the FIFA Trophy Tour, with six matches in total will take place through in 2026 with the final match taking place in New York and New Jersey on Jul. 19, 2026.
