Presentation paper at TTRA Canada, Ottawa, October 2013

This last week I was fortunate enough to have been accepted to present my paper at the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Canada Chapter Conference in Ottawa, Ontario.  I used Backer's (2012) reclassification of VFR that uses accommodation choice as well as trip motive, and applied it to non-U.S. international leisure visitors to Toronto and found that 1 in 7 visitors had a demonstrable relationship with a resident of the city.  Further, 3 in 10 person nights spent by this group in paid accommodations were down to VFR visitors, and in 2000 where the number of VFR and non-VFR visitors was similar, in 2010 VFR volume is double non-VFR visitation.  I also included two long quotes from the qualitative interviews to add context and personalty to the numbers to illustrate the meaning and significance these experiences have, and to highlight potential market opportunities.  To read the paper visit my academia.edu page here.