Tourists are returning to Toronto post-pandemic, but economic pressures persist

Toronto’s tourism industry has almost entirely bounced back since the pandemic, but experts and small business owners in the city say economic pressures are holding the industry back from fully flourishing.

Toronto’s tourism industry has almost entirely bounced back since the pandemic, but experts and small business owners in the city say economic pressures are holding the industry back from fully flourishing.

Kathy Motton, senior communications manager at Destination Toronto, told CTV News Toronto that the tourism industry has almost fully recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

“We’re not fully recovered. We are at 93 per cent of where we were pre-pandemic. We are getting closer but we are not quite there yet,” she said. “Economic uncertainty has sort of slowed down the recovery.”

“It’s not just one factor it’s multiple factors but we will see that recovery. It’s just going to take a bit of time. “

Jusep Sim, the co-founder of CEO of Chopsticks+Forks, a food tour company in Toronto, told CTV News Toronto, that his business bounced back surprisingly fast after the pandemic ended in 2022, but this summer things changed.

“This summer is actually slower than last summer for me specifically. I straddle a couple of industries because I operate walking food tours and so my challenge is the food costs and inflation since COVID,” he said.

“My tours have gone up in price quite significantly since COVID because all the restaurants are raising prices. I raised my ticket prices by over 30 per cent.”