Though tourism is way up in Toronto so far this summer compared to the past two years, the well-covered issues at Pearson Airport have not helped matters.
From taking hours to get your bags — if you can find them at all — to long delays going through customs and security, to sitting on the tarmac for hours, sometimes, to cancellations and delays, Pearson has made the news often, and not in a flattering light.
Statistics on Pearson’s website show that nearly 5% of flights scheduled July 21-23 at the airport were cancelled and an even higher number of arrivals were canceled too, including 7.29% of arrivals on July 23.
Still, one expert doesn’t believe the issues will be too much of a deterrent for travel-starved consumers.
“The air travel and airport chaos has certainly affected some people’s behaviour,” said Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“When you combine potential difficult travel conditions, uncertainty (possible delays, missed connections, lost luggage), and high prices due to a strong inflation, this will discourage some travellers from flying and will lead to vacations closer to home. Nonetheless, the eagerness to travel is real and many are willing to take risks to visit friends and family they have not seen in a long time,” Dimanche said.
“Also, who knows when travel will be restricted again … We might as well enjoy it now!”
Though the number of passengers travelling through Pearson dropped from 50.5 million in 2019, to 13.3 in 2020, business continues to pick up. Figures for April and May show a much higher number of travellers compared to the previous two, though they were still below the 2019 numbers.
For the country as a whole, Statistics Canada said that the June numbers were quite promising. In a release, they said: “In June, the number of international arrivals to Canada rose sharply compared with June 2021, nearing levels recorded in the same month in 2019, before the pandemic.” That’s interesting, considering a huge number of international travellers are not yet taking to the skies.
In terms of Toronto, Destination Toronto vice-president Andrew Weir told the Sun that while Europeans are returning to the city, “We’re not seeing any of the Asian markets start resume outbound travel, so markets like China, Japan, South Korea have really not started to travel for leisure internationally.” Weir pointed out that China alone was Toronto’s top international draw, with around 300,000 visitors coming annually, and many staying for a while because of the length of the flights to get here.
“So they stay longer and spend more when they’re here than a visitor from three hours away. So … there is a disproportionate impact because people that have come further clearly are going to stay longer and do more,” Weir said.
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