New York City is on a mission in Canada
New York City Tourism + Conventions and its partners were in Canada this week, making stops in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City for meetings with travel trade types in each city.
In Toronto, the 2024 Canadian sales mission welcomed close to 30 buyers who had the opportunity for one-on-one table top meetings with about 20 New York City sellers, representing New York City Tourism + Conventions, hoteliers, attractions, sightseeing pass sellers and companies, museums, theatres, theatre ticket sellers and even the New York Yankees.
Travel Press Today had a chance to sit down for a chat with Reginald Charlot, senior vice president, tourism market development for New York City Tourism + Conventions, who reports that the destinations three key markets – leisure, corporate and MICE – are doing “very, very well.”
In fact, Charlot was quick to point out that in 2023, New York City welcomed 62 million visitors and in 2024, and it’s forecasting that visitations will grow to 64 million.
And while Charlot made it clear that he was being ‘cautious,’ the outlook for 2025 is that New York City “could reach 68 million which takes us over our 2019 visitation numbers.”
Asked about Canada, Charlot told TPT that “Canada is super important. It’s our neighbour to the north [and] we had about 995,000 Canadians visit in 2023.”
Looking ahead to 2024, he said that New York City expects to see its Canadian visitor numbers grow to over 1 million, observing: “I think we’re in the right place to do that.”
As for where the travel trade fits in New York City Tourism + Conventions’ plans, Charlot made it clear that: “The travel trade is the voice for us. They are our biggest supporters, so we’re ready to help them any way we can.”
In fact, the destination has relaunched the New York City Travel Academy, which is an online learning tool that covers the city’s 5 boroughs and which Charlot said has been very helpful in educating the travel trade community more on what’s happening in New York City.”
New York City Tourism + Conventions has also organized educational tours to the city to give travel trade professionals an opportunity to immerse themselves in all that’s going on there.
Clearly optimistic about the outlook for the Canadian market, Charlot observed that: “I think that Canadians are really starting to become more intrepid and exploring more of the 5 boroughs than in the past. I think they’re taking their time in order to see what is new and also to revisit what they’ve seen before – that’s really, really exciting.”
Asked why this is happening, Charlot told TPT: “I think that’s what the trade has done for us. They’ve educated their clients about the new things, the things that they had seen before and to go beyond the things they’d seen before.”
PHOTO CAPTION
Seen here, from l to r, are Sarah Yoo, New York City Tourism + Conventions; Renee Wilson, New York City Tourism + Conventions; Reginald Charlot, New York City Tourism + Conventions; and Charmaine Singh from Reach Global Marketing.
