With world leaders, their staff and media expected to descend on Toronto this summer for the G20 summit, organizers have a lot of work ahead of them.
One of the first issues that must be dealt with is where to house all the people coming to the city for the conference.
"This is one of the largest groups of people, the largest group event, that we can host," said David Whitaker, CEO of Tourism Toronto, which is tasked for finding hotel accommodations for delegates and other visitors.
Mr. Whitaker says that they're expecting the conference to book between 40,000 and 50,000 room nights - a measure that takes considers how many hotel rooms are booked and for how long. With average hotel rates in Toronto during the summer, he estimates that could pump up to $17-million into the local economy in hotel bills alone.
"This is welcome hotel business, especially with the sluggish economy we're having," he said.
The summit is scheduled to run June 26-27, although support staff and media may show start showing up days before. This puts the G20 right in the middle of a busy time in the city's summer - the weekend of the conference is one day after the kick-off to Toronto's Pride Festival, which drew over 100,000 visitors to Toronto this year. Though that doesn't worry Pride organizers.
"We don't see many problems," said Tracy Sandiland, executive director of the festival. "We've been aware [of the possibility]for a long time. The Pride was planned with that in mind."
Ms. Sandiland says that the main draw of the festival, the parade that winds its way downtown, won't be until the end of the week. The two events were originally planned for the same time, but Pride was pushed back so that it would correspond with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York.
The number of people can put a strain on a city. Some business closed in Pittsburgh when the last G20 summit was held there in September, says Joe McGrath with Visit Pittsburgh. That was mostly due to concerns over closed streets and security measures, which McGrath says were exaggerated before the event.
"People could function. They might need to walk a few extra blocks, but things were still open," said Mr. McGrath.
Despite the downsides, he feels the event was a positive for the city as whole. He estimates that the summit brought 30-million dollars into the local economy. More than that, Mr. McGrath says it had longer lasting benefits.
"It was a great way to get Pittsburgh's story out to the world that wouldn't otherwise hear it," he said. "I think it will be the same [for Toronto.]rdquo;