BATTLING IT OUT IN YVR & YYZ

Toronto is expected to be slightly ahead of Vancouver for fourth place among overnight international travellers in North America, but tourists are expected to spend $2.3 billion (35% more) in Vancouver than in Toronto in 2013, according to MasterCard’s Global Destination Cities Index, an analysis of international travel and visitor spending in 132 major cities. Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, the economist who serves as global economic advisor to MasterCard, said: “This suggests that Vancouver has done a better job creating the activities, the arts, culture, entertainment and historic sites that visitors will pay to experience.” That’s important because those visitor dollars create a lot of jobs, economic activity and social benefits.” And Hedrick-Wong went on to say that: “When cities attract more visitors, that creates a need to upgrade infrastructure and improve the cityscape and the overall urban environment.” MasterCard’s Index indicates a strong connection between a city’s investment in infrastructure and amenities and its tourist draw. Three Canadian cities ranked within the top ten destination cities for international travellers in North America, with Toronto in fourth place, Vancouver in fifth and Montreal in ninth place. In the international rankings, Bangkok beat London as this year’s premier destination for international travellers. No Canadian city ranked among the top 20 destinations. Vancouver is expected to trail only New York and Los Angeles among North America cities in the amount overnight visitors spend. Visitors are estimated to spend $6.5-billion in Vancouver in 2013 compared to only $4.2-billion in Toronto, even though both cities will attract 3.4-million overnight visitors a year. On a global scale, among the top 132 cities covered in the MasterCard Index, Vancouver just edged into the top 20 of expected international visitor spending at number 17. New York still leads all, followed by London, Paris, Bangkok and Singapore rounding out the top five. The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2013. The Index and the accompanying reports are not based on MasterCard volumes or transactional data.