Pride Toronto has been chosen as host city for World Pride in 2014. Presented by InterPride, World Pride promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues on an international level through parades, festivals, and other cultural activities. Announced in the first session of Sunday, October 18, at the annual InterPride Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, this will be the fourth scheduled World Pride since the event's inception in Rome in 2000.

The most recent WorldPride took place in Jerusalem in 2006, and the next one is set for just prior to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, England in 2012. Pride Toronto has already started planning a magnificent opening ceremony, a packed program of human rights events, a parade of nations, and numerous other exciting aspects. Following World Pride in Toronto in 2014, the event will be held only once every five years, on each fifth anniversary of Stonewall.

"This triumph for Pride Toronto will not only be beneficial to the community, but will also have a greatly positive outcome for Toronto, for Ontario, and in some ways, for all of Canada," says executive director Tracey Sandilands. "Of course, the most obvious impact this event will have is on the economy."

This past summer, Pride Week contributed over $100m to the economy of Ontario, and a large portion of that came from visitors to the city. In England, London Pride is expecting about one million attendees for their World Pride, doubling their usual attendance. Toronto, being one of the largest Pride events in the world, usually has over a million turn out for Pride Week - there's no telling just how many will flock to the city for WorldPride in 2014, says Sandilands.

It's a fact that the farther people travel to an event, the more local services they require; from accommodation, food, and transportation, to recreation, souvenirs, and shopping, tourism dollars are pumped into the city during high-profile events. These events also draw people who may not have visited Toronto otherwise, which can help people to view Toronto as a tourist destination, so they continue to come back each year, and they promote the city through word-of-mouth as well.

"Hosting WorldPride in Toronto will also do well for employment in the city and in the province," says WorldPride committee chair Mark Singh. "Having millions of people visit the city can create new jobs within the organization to prepare for the event itself, but it will also create more opportunities for workers in city services, retail, restaurants, hospitality, and healthcare - just to name a few."

The advantages of WorldPride will not only benefit Toronto, however. Tourism stimulates local business, and also supports the suppliers of those businesses. This provides a greater, more far-reaching indirect effect on income and employment. In 2009, 762 full-time jobs were directly supported province-wide.

"What's more, having such a major event in our metropolis can also act as a catalyst for development of improved facilities - sometimes even new facilities - which can also add to provincial income and employment during construction," says Singh.

Improved development can also contribute to better sustainability, And still even more far-reaching is the fact that Pride Week already generates millions of dollars in taxes for all levels of our government, such as the $21.1 million collected last year alone, $6 million of which went all the way to the federal government.

But the big focus for the organization is the human rights benefit and the increased global awareness that will result from the event.

"A festival of this nature will bring Pride contingents from all over the world, building international awareness of our culture and identities," says Sandilands. "It will highlight those countries where similar freedoms aren't available and where human rights abuses against queer people still occur." - Words by Crystal Moore, Media Co-Ordinator

Read the official press release here

For more information, please contact

Tracey Sandilands
Executive Director
1.416.524.4554

Mark Singh
Chair, World Pride Bid Committee
1.416.574.2424

 

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