Tourism in Kingston

Kingston is centrally positioned in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montréal corridor and part of the world-famous Thousand Islands. More than 14.5 million Canadians – or a third of the country’s population – live within a three-hour drive of Kingston and thousands of US residents live just across the border.

This geographic proximity combined with Kingston’s history and heritage, lakeside location, lively arts and culture scene, several anchor tourism attractions, and 40+ accommodation properties, sees tourism contribute substantially to the city’s economy.

Hospitality and accommodation jobs represent 9% of Kingston’s workforce and no other consensus metropolitan area attracts more domestic tourism than Kingston, relative to population size.

Economic Impact of Tourism in Kingston 2022

Visitor spending: $493 M
Labour income: $214 M
Direct taxes: $111 M

Visitors: 1.67 M
Leisure visitors: 1.61 M
Business visitors: 60,500

82% from Ontario
10% from the United States
5% from the rest of Canada
3% international

52% of visitors stay overnight
36.7 hours, average length of stay
493 KM average distance travelled
41% are repeat visitors

Visitor Profile:
54% hold white-collar jobs
55% hold a college/university degree or diploma or higher
44% have a household income of $60,000 or higher
54% have taken two or more vacations in the past three year
52% spent $1,000 or more on their last vacation