City Looks To Boost Itself As Destination for Canadians

The city's tourism and marketing association is expanding north, opening its first office in Canada to promote New York as a tourist destination.

The office, which officially opened yesterday in Toronto, is NYC & Co.'s 16th international office. The tourism booster has opened 12 international offices in the past year and has plans to open offices in Australia and India within the next few months. Canada is the city's second-largest tourism market, behind Britain. Last year an estimated 880,000 Canadian tourists visited the city.

The CEO of NYC & Co., George Fertitta, said about 65% of Canadian tourists come to the city for the shopping, and about 44% visit to take in the sights. He said NYC & Co. will be trying to sell the city to Canadian tourists and making efforts to convince those who already have been to New York to come back for another look.

"All of the cultural institutions are doing great, theater is going great and restaurants are doing well. It's a great moment," he said in a telephone interview with The New York Sun. "A lot of people don't even know that. They haven't been there for two years. They don't really know how much has changed or evolved."

Mr. Fertitta said the company's research has shown that about 24% of Canadian tourists want to visit historical sights and 20% want to go to bars or nightclubs, he added.

The city announced earlier this year that it estimated a record-breaking 46 million tourists visited New York City last year.