Toronto and New York City Sign City-to-city Partnership to Boost Travel Between the Two Destinations

(Source: Travel Weekly China)

Tourism Toronto and NYC & Company, the official destination marketing organizations for their respective cities, signed an official partnership to boost tourism between Toronto and New York City. This is the first ever city-to-city tourism partnership of its kind for Toronto and the first Canadian partnership for NYC & Company.

The two-year alliance includes a collaboration agreement between the two destination marketing organizations, the exchange of marketing assets to boost reciprocal travel, and the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing.

To celebrate the partnership between Tourism Toronto and NYC & Company, Air Canada just launched a sale, with special fares from New York City to Toronto, for travel until February 15, 2018. Air Canada is the airline offering the most service between Toronto and the New York City area, with a total of up to 21 return flights a day to LaGuardia and Newark airports.

Tourism Toronto President and CEO Johanne Belanger and NYC & Company President and CEO Fred Dixon were on hand for the announcement, which took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.

"This is Toronto's first city-to-city partnership, and New York City makes the ideal partner. Toronto and New York City are the financial, entertainment and cultural centres of our two nations and this partnership goes a long way to share our big-city experiences with each other's residents and visitors. Both cities are similarly built upon diversity and inclusion and we are proud to showcase that sense of welcome to the world together," said Belanger.

"Today, we are proud to sign a first-ever partnership with Toronto, our fantastic neighbors to the North. New York City and Toronto share so much in common and both cities wholeheartedly embrace their diversity and multicultural dynamism, positioning both destinations as attractive and welcoming hubs for global travel. We look forward to cultivating our city-to-city collaboration with Toronto over the next two years and using the expanded relationship to boost more travel between Toronto and New York City," said Dixon.

"Air Canada is delighted to join Tourism Toronto and NYC & Company in this exciting partnership entailing the unique use of media assets to promote Toronto, New York City and Air Canada. It is a creative collaboration that will drive tremendous value to each of the partners and something we will celebrate with customers through compelling promotional fares," said Duncan Bureau, Vice President, Global Sales at Air Canada. "As the airline with most flights between Toronto and New York City we offer customers a convenient schedule with up to 21 return trips a day between the two cities on the only 4-Star network carrier in North America."

The city-to-city partnership includes a swap of marketing and advertising assets to influence seasonal travel. Both cities will exchange $500,000 in assets to promote the other destination in their respective city.

In New York City, advertisements will appear on bus stop shelters across all five boroughs beginning October 23, 2017 for 8 weeks to promote Toronto. New York City advertisements will be featured in Toronto through out-of-home media and radio beginning the third week of November and running into February 2018.

As part of the agreement, New York City and Toronto will also share best practices in tourism management to increase the number of visitors between both markets in the years ahead.

Canada is New York City's third largest source of international visitation—last year, the city welcomed 928,000 visitors. In 2017, that number is projected to grow to 938,000. Toronto is the largest source market of visitation from Canada to NYC.

In 2016, Toronto welcomed 2.8 million American visitors – the eighth consecutive year of growth from the important U.S. market. New York State is the largest source market within the U.S. at 637,000 visitors and the greater New York City area accounts for approximately half of that total.