People & Places
The attraction of Toronto
Jo-ann Hodgson checks out the lifestyle attractions on offer in Toronto, Canada’s largest city
Canada's largest city, Toronto, attracts over four million tourists each year, the city's largest market being the UK. Last year Toronto welcomed a record 10,660,000 visitors (280,000 Brits within this number) and with 8,000 hectares of parkland, a plethora of opportunities to enjoy the Arts and a neighbourhood boasting one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per kilometre in the world, among many other attractions, its easy to see why the city has such a strong pull.
Toronto is a city built within a park, and with 1,5000 named parks offers the perfect green-living andedote to busy city-life. Among the city's most famous parks are: Allan Gardens, which, built in 1858, features six greenhouses consisting over 1,500 square metres of colourful seasonal plants; The Music Garden, conceived by internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma as an interpretation of Bach's First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello; and Rouge Park, which is the largest natural and cultural heritage park situated in an urban area in North America.
Toronto also boasts three million trees and maintains over 650 horticultural beds. Situated on the north shore of Lake Ontario, the city offers up 29 miles for waterfront leisure opportunities. As well as water-based sporting activities, Toronto is ranked as the number one cycling city in North America, with more than 522 miles of trails, the most notable being the Martin Goodman trail, a 14-mile path along Toronto's waterfront. However, far from being all natural peace and quiet, Toronto has a thriving multicultural urban centre for those who live off the buzz of the city. Yorkville, possibly the city's trendiest neighbourhood, is home to the city's most elegant shopping and dining opportunities. Indeed, the Toronto Eaton Centre in Yorkville is one of North America's top shopping destinations and Toronto's most popular tourist attraction with over one million visitors per week. For more choice in dining, Greektown on the Danforth is another of Toronto's most popular neighbourhoods with one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per kilometre in the world. The area plays host to the annual Taste of Danforth festival, which attracts over one million people over two and a half days, and was initially modelled on the enormously successful Taste of Chicago, as a celebration of Hellenic cuisine and Hellenic culture.
The Distillery District, a pedestrian village, is a more bohemian area of the city and contains boutiques, art galleries, restaurants and small breweries. The district is also home to a new theatre, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Indeed, the Arts are well represented in Toronto with more than fifty ballet and dance companies, six opera companies and two symphony orchestras. The city is also home to the National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Each summer, the Canadian Stage Company also presents an outdoor Shakespere production in the Toronto's High Park.
Other tourist attractions on offer in the city include the Royal Ontario Museum of world culture and natural history, the Toronto Zoo, home to over 5,000 animals, The Art Gallery of Ontario, which contains a large collection of Canadian, European, African and contemporary artwork, and the Ontario Science Centre, which features interactive displays. As the production of domestic and foreign film is one of Toronto's main industries, many movie releases are screened in Toronto prior to wider release and the city is host to the annual Toronto International Film Festival.
Other annual festivals include Pride Week, which takes place in mid-June and is one of the largest 'LGBT' festivals in the world, and the Caribana festival, which takes place from mid-July to early August and attracts over one million people to Toronto's Lake Shore Boulevard. And this year Toronto looks set to attract even more visitors thanks to its unique lifestyle opportunities. "Looking ahead, 2008 presents new opportunities," says David Whitaker, President and CEO of Tourism Toronto. "Our festival line-up is strong and cultural institutions continue their revitalisation. The momentum of a stronger-than-expected 2007 puts us in a solid position for 2008."
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