As a major metropolis and fourth-largest city in North America by population, Toronto has always had a lot to offer in the luxury realm.
Already home to more than two dozen five-star hotels from chains like the Shangri-La and the St. Regis, Canada’s largest city will soon also see the opening of the Nobu Hotel in a 45-story building that had opened to the city’s first Nobu restaurant in August 2024. The new hotel started taking reservations earlier this year, while doors for the first guests to its 36 rooms and suites will open at the start of June.
All this comes at a time when travel to the U.S. is on the decline globally amid the Trump administration’s anti-immigration focus and high-profile stories of tourists from different countries being detained at the border. A report from Tourism Economics predicts that international travel to the U.S. will fall by 15.2% in 2025.
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Tourists bring $8.8 billion into Toronto economy, numbers to keep rising
A recent market performance highlights report from Destination Toronto showed that in 2024, Toronto welcomed just over nine million international visitors. Of those, 2.7 million came from outside of Canada, while the total number represents a 7% spike from the previous year.
According to the report, tourist spending brought over $8.8 billion to the city’s economy. This number comes from before the start of Trump’s second term in the White House. Yet several reports show that tourism into Canada will continue to increase as many travelers from Europe and Asia choose it over the U.S. for their next holiday.
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Martine Gerow, chief financial officer of the major French hotel chain Accor (ACRFF) , recently told investors that bookings at their U.S. properties among European Union residents are down by 25% for the upcoming summer, while Canadian bookings have seen a slight uptick.
“The only market where we’ve seen an inflection, which is actually benefitting us, is Canada, where we see Canadians who were planning to travel in the U.S. actually staying in Canada and some events that were planned in the U.S. now repositioned in Canada,” Berow said in an earnings call.
Toronto Harbour is a picturesque area with numerous waterfront restaurants and high-end hotels.
Image source: Shutterstock
While always known for its eclectic and globally recognized dining scene, Toronto recently saw a fresh spate of high-end restaurant openings. Along with the Nobu restaurant preceding the hotel, newcomers in the last year include Asian fusion restaurant aKin, fine Cantonese dining brand Mott 32, and New York-based Greek fish restaurant Estiatorio Milos. Harbour Sixty, an iconic steakhouse on the Toronto waterfront, also reopened its doors on March 1 after a two-year, million-dollar renovation.
Martha Stewart shouts out Toronto’s dining scene in latest cooking show
In an appearance on NBC’s Kelly Clarkson Show, television personality and home show host Martha Stewart called out Toronto’s dining scene — she and Spanish-American restaurateur José Andrés have chosen it as the base of their new cooking show “Yes Chef!”
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“We had the best; every night, [Andrés] found the next best restaurant,” Stewart said in her interview with Clarkson. “We had the best dinners.”
In the casual luxury space, Toronto also opened a new 70,000-square-foot food hall offering everything from lobster rolls and freshly-made sushi to crafted cocktails in May 2024. The name, Wellington Market, is a nod to The Well, the wider shopping and retail development that houses it.
According to the market performance report, food and beverage accounted for $2.2 billion or 24% of the total that visitors to Toronto spent in the city — a number that, according to estimates for 2025, is projected to grow even higher as many choose Canada for their North American holiday.
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