Celebrating Kingston’s $544 million tourism industry
April 15, 2024
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Tourism Awareness Week, April 15–19, recognizes the pivotal role of tourism in Canada (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) – The theme of Tourism Awareness Week 2024 – Canada: powered by Tourism – is fitting for Kingston. The sector locally is driven by a range of tourism experiences from visiting friends and family to motor coach tours, business meetings and sport events to film and music production – and tourism in Kingston happens year-round. Kingston is a tourism-dependent city. In fact, no other consensus metropolitan area in Canada sees more domestic tourism than Kingston relative to population. Kingston has one of the largest hospitality and accommodation workforces in Canada providing almost 9% of Kingston’s workforce or 15,000 tourism-related jobs (1). The RTO 9 region overall is home to 7,000 tourism businesses (2). Mayor Bryan Paterson, on behalf of the City of Kingston, has proclaimed April 15–19, Tourism Awareness Week in Kingston. “Tourism is a key economic sector in Kingston,” says Mayor Bryan Paterson. “It employs about nine per cent of our local workforce and supports many small businesses and cultural organizations in our city, from inns and restaurants to galleries and museums. This week is a great opportunity to recognize the importance of tourism in our community.” In 2023, tourism in Kingston generated an estimated $544 million economic impact. 51% of visitors stayed overnight, a significant shift from pre-pandemic when only 39% spent more than 24 hours in the city. While 2023 was a solid year for the tourism sector locally, full recovery from the impact of the COVID pandemic and inflation will take many years. 1.9 million visitors were welcome in 2023 compared to 2.7 million in 2019. Continued year-round support for tourism in Kingston is critical to the sector’s full recovery. Tourism Kingston is the city’s destination marketing and management organization, responsible for raising awareness and profile of the city, encouraging tourism through group travel, event hosting, experience development, and film and music production and promotion, and providing visitor services through the Visitor Information Centre. Tourism Kingston’s marketing of the city as a visitor destination is funded by the Municipal Accommodation Tax, a 5% tax on hotel stays of fewer than 30 days, as well as provincial and federal project grants. “Combined, the leisure, business events, group travel, sport, film, and music tourism sectors generate significant economic impact locally each year, through direct spending, employment, and investment in Kingston,” says Megan Knott, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Kingston. “Tourism has had a pivotal role in our pandemic recovery as a community. We will continue to champion tourism as a key driver of our city, one that is tremendously important for local businesses and cultural organizations and the community at large.”
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ABOUT TOURISM KINGSTON Tourism Kingston’s mission is to promote Kingston, Ontario as a uniquely historic and hip destination to explore year-round. Tourism Kingston’s vision is to excel in creating, promoting, and growing opportunities for Kingston, Ontario to be a premier destination for individuals, groups, and businesses; to leverage tourism as a key driver of a healthy economy of Kingston; and to champion Kingston as a destination for local, regional, national, and international tourism.
Learn more about tourism in Kingston: visitkingston.ca/about- |