WorldPride 2014 : what it means for Toronto

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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.

http://www.pridetoronto.com/news/pride-toronto-wins-world-pride-2014-to-have-nationwide-benefits/