2010 posts

Toronto Revels in Record Tourist Season

Filed under: Employment & Careers, Travel, Small Business

Toronto attracted a record number of tourists and made strides in a number of key tourist markets in 2010, triumphing over significant headwinds from the high Canadian dollar and weak U.S. economy.

Canada's largest city welcomed more than 10 million overnight visitors during the year with the number of hotel rooms sold reaching over 8.93 million, the highest level ever, according to Tourism Toronto. These tourist spent a combined $4.5 billion, providing a significant source of income for local businesses.

The success has been a boon for Toronto, which outshone Vancouver despite that city playing host to the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Tags: 2010, bookings, brazil, canada, canadian dollar, CanadianDollar, conferences, conventions, delegates, hotels, india, japan, occupancy rates, OccupancyRates, overnight stays, OvernightStays, record, smith travel research, SmithTravelResearch, toronto, tourism, tourist, united states, UnitedStates, vancouver, visitors

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How to Optimize Your RRSP Investment Portfolio for 2011

by Alia McMullen

Filed under: Budgeting & Planning, Investing, Retirement and RRSPs

Best RRSP investment opportunities After a shocking start to the year, Canadian pension plans recovered most of their losses toward the end of 2010, helped by stock market gains and a slight rebound in long-term government bond yields.

Investment fund managers expect this gradual improvement to continue in 2011 as stock markets rise and long-term bond yields inch marginally higher on the back of interest rate increases, according to a survey by Mercer Investment Consulting.

Pension plans suffered throughout the first three quarters of 2010 due to declining long-term government bond yields, a factor that offset decent stock market returns. However, Mercer says a 20 basis point increase in yields in the last three months of the year helped the typical balanced portfolio to a return of 9.2 per cent over the year. Mercer data show that 'Canadian equities' was the best performing asset class in 2010 with a return of 17.6 per cent. On the other hand, the strengthening Canadian dollar had a negative affect on foreign equity returns throughout the year.

Tags: 2010, 2011, advice, assets, bonds, canada, canadian dollar, CanadianDollar, emerging markets, EmergingMarkets, equities, invest, investment, Mercer, oil, overweight, pension plans, PensionPlans, profits, registered retirement savings plan, RegisteredRetirementSavingsPlan, returns, RRSP, shares, stock market, StockMarket, stocks, tips, tsx

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Canadians Love Watching Television - Just Not Canadian Television

by Alia McMullen

Filed under: Weird & Wonderful, Television

CTV has released its list of the most popular television broadcasts for 2010, revealing the TV watching habits of Canadians.

So what is it we like to watch? Turns out it is sports, more sports, and a bit of celebrity. But what's missing from the list is just as telling. What don't Canadians like to watch?

Unfortunately, the answer is Canadian TV shows.

With the exception of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics which dominated the year -- even if it was just a one-off historical blip -- only four Canadian broadcasts in a list of 70 programs made it into CTV's list of most watched TV shows and events. No homegrown sitcoms made the list.

The two best performing Canadian broadcasts were both sports related. The Grey Cup garnered a respectable turnout of 5,027,200, making it the fourth most watched broadcast of the entire year (excluding the Olympics). Meanwhile, the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship twice made it into the list of most watched sporting events for 2010 -- once for the gold medal game vs. the U.S., and also for the playoff against Switzerland. Even so, it came in behind the Superbowl showdown between New Orleans and Indianapolis with an audience of 6,297,400.

Tags: 2010, academy awards, AcademyAwards, broadcast, canadians, celebrity, ctv, grammys, grey cup, GreyCup, hockey, iihf, junior championships, JuniorChampionships, juno awards, JunoAwards, much music, MuchMusic, olympics, oscars, rankings, sport, television, top 10, Top10, tv, United States, UnitedStates, vancouver

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It's Not Too Late To Get To The World Cup Final In South Africa

by Alia McMullen

Filed under: Budgeting & Planning, Shopping, Travel

Most of us will have to be content with watching the FIFA World Cup final on TV, but for soccer fanatics out there, it's not to late to plan a trip to Johannesburg. Seriously.

OK, I'll prepare you now because this one is going to hurt your wallet. But if you are one of those fans that cringe at the word 'soccer' (it's football, you know) and wake in the early hours of the morning and head straight to the pub to watch the beautiful game live with other like-minded fanatics, then I know you will consider, or at the very least dream, about jumping on a plane tomorrow and heading to South Africa. What a memory.

The good news is there are still tickets about for the final. For non-fanatics out there (because fanatics will already know this for sure), the final will be held in Johannesburg on July 11. The teams playing off for a spot in the final are: