Turning Domestic Travel into Destination Growth

By Vince Accardi, President, Ontario Motor Coach Association

Ontario’s tourism industry has spent considerable time talking about the importance of attracting visitors from international markets. Those visitors remain critically important to TIAO’s Forward Motion strategy and generate new global spending within our province but there is another market that should be at the centre of every destination’s growth strategy. That’s the millions of domestic tourists already travelling across within our own province.

The numbers make a compelling case. In 2025, more than 90% of all visits to Ontario were generated by domestic travellers. Ontario residents accounted for approximately 93% of those domestic visits, with visitors from other provinces making up the balance. That represents an enormous opportunity for Ontario tourism businesses. Domestic visitors are travelling to our communities, staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, visiting attractions, shopping in our communities and participating in tours and experiences. In many cases, they are the reliable customer base that keeps tourism businesses operating throughout the year and support the ability to grow our tourism economy beyond our borders.

The spending numbers reinforce is point. Ontario generated approximately $32 billion in tourism spending in 2025, with domestic travellers responsible for roughly 70% of that total. Ontario residents travelling within the province generated approximately $17.8 billion, while visitors from other provinces contributed another $4.5 billion. International visitors generated approximately $9.5 billion. For tourism businesses, this means the domestic market should not be treated as a secondary opportunity. It is the foundation on which much of Ontario’s tourism economy is built.

Ontario residents generated approximately 98 million visitor nights in 2025. Visitors from international markets, including the United States, generated approximately 72.8 million nights, while visitors from other provinces generated approximately 24.8 million.

We all have all heard the mantra “international visitors stay longer and spend more per trip” but did you know that domestic travellers spend more per night? This is precisely why group travel matters.

A motor coach can bring dozens of people into a community at the same time, creating immediate demand across multiple sectors. A group arriving on a tour often means hotel stays, restaurant meals, attraction admissions, retail purchases, entertainment and transportation all connected through a single itinerary, purchased far in advance and when it’s right for tourism businesses.

For destinations looking to increase shoulder-season visitation, or businesses looking to fill mid week slumps or for those introduce their experiences to new buyers, organized group travel can be an especially effective tool. This is where OMCA Marketplace can help. Taking place November 2–4, 2026, in the Waterloo Region, OMCA’s Marketplace is designed to connect tourism suppliers and destinations with the tour operator buyers who can turn those relationships into future business. For TIAO members, Marketplace is an opportunity to put your destination, attraction, hotel, restaurant, experience or tourism product directly in front of buyers from Ontario, the US and other provinces that are looking for new group opportunities.

The tourism landscape is changing, but one thing remains clear. Ontario has a tremendous domestic tourism market right here at home. Our job as an industry is to make it easier for more tourists to discover more of their own province and to give North American group travel buyers compelling reasons to put even more Ontario experiences on their itineraries.

I encourage TIAO members to join us at OMCA Marketplace this November or to reach out to the OMCA team to learn more.

Let’s turn our enormous domestic tourism opportunity into more overnight stays and more economic activity in all communities across the province.