[blixa442]

Big-spending tourists shun Toronto
33% drop in U.S. travel to T.O.
Americans see city as unexciting
Feb. 2, 2006. 06:20 AM
CATHERINE PORTER
CITY HALL BUREAU


Americans think we're boring and they aren't coming here as much as they did five years ago.

Since they are big spenders, that has tourism officials and hoteliers worried.

"Too many Americans are not considering Canada for a vacation," Greater Toronto Hotel Association president Rod Seiling said yesterday.

"Unfortunately, when they think of our country, they only see the age-old stereotype of the three Ms — moose, mountains and Mounties."

Over the past five years, Toronto has seen a 33 per cent drop in American travellers, who make up about half of the city's hotel business, Seiling said. At the same time, the number of European visitors has soared by 50 per cent — but not enough to make up the difference.

That will mean that this year, the city's hotel occupancy rate — still recovering from SARS — will likely drop again, he said.

"The problem is we are not on (Americans') radar screen," said Seiling.

Bev Tudhope, chief executive of Interbrand Canada, said that while his firm hasn't done research on the image of Toronto, there's a perception abroad that this "is not the most exciting place in the world."

"I'm a native Torontonian, I love the city, but are there more exciting things to do in other places? Yeah," said Tudhope, whose company has come up with "brand identities" for London, Edinburgh, Estonia, Johannesburg and Guatemala.

Other reasons for Americans' lack of interest include soaring gas prices, the rising Canadian dollar, increased hassles and security at the border, and last year's hockey lockout, Seiling said. But the biggest culprit, both he and Tourism Toronto's president Bruce MacMillan agreed, is dwindling government tourism dollars.

They called on the provincial government to renew its $30 million Ontario Tourism Revitalization Program, which expired last year, and on the new federal government to boost its tourism funding to $100 million from $78 million.

The last count of American travellers to the city was 2004, when 2.9 million arrived — about 16 per cent of Toronto's total visitors that year. But, they spent $1.2 billion while here — almost as much as the 12 million Ontarians who travelled to Toronto, making up two-thirds of the annual visits to the city.

"To us, the American traveller is huge," said Seiling.

The city's tourism industry was shattered in 2003 by the outbreak of SARS which killed 44 people in Toronto. That year, more than 3.6 million Americans cancelled or curtailed trips to Ontario. Hotel occupancies hit an all-time low of 58 per cent.

Since then, the industry has rallied, with the city's hotel occupancy rate rising to 67 per cent last year. But, that's still lower than in 2000, when the city's 183 hotels were filled 71 per cent of the time.

with files from Isabel Teotonio

 

[Chuck100]

I wouldn't say that Toronto is boring at all. But if you're a typical tourist who isn't big on Toronto's indie arts and cultural scene, why bother coming back more than once. How many times can you go up the CN Tower or visit the ROM. Thank god we've got massive events such as Caribana, pride week and the Indy. LOTR and even Body Worlds at the Science Centre are welcome events as well.

 

[yyzer]

What this article fails to mention is that U.S. travel is down to every foreign destination...americans cut back their travel since Sept 11, 2001, and have stayed close to home ever since...

 

[samplain]

Toronto needs to maintain its own events(Caribana, TIFF etc) maybe some new ones(nuit blanche).

Overall, the big US bucks are in the convention business and sports.

 

[cacruden]

I have changed my opinion on this (although I am not enthusiastic about it)..... but I believe that we should change our stance on Casinos (for conferences).

I believe some of our laws should be liberalized.

- Allow licensed Casino's in a few select hotels.
- Change the liquor laws so that when things like Jazz Festival is on -- that people can consume wine/beer outside of licensed establishments (although the purchase of open beer should still be controlled).

 

[tudararms]

In theory the fact that U.S. travel overseas is down should be a boon to Toronto. All the more so considering we are within an easy day's drive of many major U.S. metropolitan areas.

The major reasons for yankee indifference/disdain (in no particular order):

1. SARS - bad PR never helped anybody.

2. Strong Canuck buck. No deals anymore to lure U.S. spenders. If it's just as expensive to go to T.O. as New York or San Fran or Chicago, why not stay home and discover the U.S.A.?

3. The death of big commercial theatre in the city. The Phantom of the Opera alone represented its own little mini tourist industry back in the heyday of U.S. travel to T.O. Cheap bucks and big shows meant booked hotel rooms!

4. A lack of identity/branding and poor marketing. Toronto's image has to compete for airtime with that of many other places in North America alone. Toronto simply put does not convey or evoke any one single overwhelmingly unique image to anybody outside of Canada. In the past we may have boasted about being the Canadian "Broadway", or "Hollywood North", a cultural mosaic or an especially clean and safe place but most of these images are either derivative, or not unique to T.O., and none of them are very sexy or alluring.

5. Gun violence. Ouch, very sensitive indeed. T.O. has a dirty little secret that's not so secret anymore.

6. Bad service and rude/hostile people. This is one recurring thing/perception I hear a lot of from people in the U.S. Rightly or wrongly, justified or not, we have a PR problem south of the border with regards to a perceived lack of friendliness. This is all underscored by American coverage of rising political hostility and anti-americanism in Canada. Why would an American want to come here and be treated badly. On a personal note, my husband is American and deals with rudeness and negativity on a *daily* basis, with no word of exaggeration. Fortunatley, he's a democrat and takes his lumps, and still loves it here, but even he at times is a little sore by it though. Also, we had a friend from the U.S. visiting over the holidays. We shopped and played tourist in T.O. Overall he enjoyed it here, but found it deplorably expensive and thought he could experience pretty much the same things but on a bigger/better scale in NY or Chicago. I was also mortified and embarrassed at times by the blatant rudeness we encountered. Believe me, I could name establishments!!

7. Expensive. Nuff said.

We've got lots of work to do if we care to bring back the greenbacks. This is not a criticism but I'm not sure we're up to it. Hey, T.O. is a fantastic place to live but quite simply lacks some of the basics of a major tourist destination. Who knows, maybe the revitalization of the waterfront would help this, but I can't help but think that what we lack overall is a strong and firm identity of our own that can be shared and that people will want to come and experience for themselves.

 

[cacruden]

1. SARS - bad PR never helped anybody.

It hurt, but I dont't think this is much of a factor -- as far as US tourists are concerned (likely a factor with the Japanese to some extent).

2. Strong Canuck buck.

Yep, this has a lot to do with it. -- although not with the conventions.

Actually, when I was working at a consulting company in the United States, we were considering Montreal as the company retreat.... but had to drop that since we had a considerable number of recently graduated foreign students, and the visa processing for entering Canada and the status processing for re-entering the United States made it impossible to chose.

An open boarder would have worked wonders then -- but there would have to be A LOT of work before we could consider it now.

3. The death of big commercial theatre in the city.

Lord of the Rings should help considerably -- it will be unique to Toronto for many years.

4. A lack of identity/branding and poor marketing.

This is where many levels of government could help since it would any increase helps revenues for all levels of government.

5. Gun violence.

Overstated -- and aggrevated considerably by our politicians -- blaming OUR gun violence ON the United States was -- stupid -- (in addition to taking responsibility for our problems). It made the event play down there on media, that Canada was blaming the US for out of control gun violence on us. It made the overstated gun violence stick in the minds of many now.

6. Bad service and rude/hostile people.

We have many good food restaurants with poor service -- li.e. server's with poor manners -- I did not notice it as much until I went out often with a friend of mine that was visiting from Japan. (I guess I was insensitive to it).

 

[samsonyuen]

That's too bad. How is domestic tourism from within Canada?

 

[Observer Walt]

Tudararms: Thanks for a good post.

"I could name establishments" ... I would encourage you to do so, not necessarily here, but a specific complaint to the management of said establishments might be constructive.

I also think it is dead on to mention how much gratuitous anti-Americanism there is in this city and country. * What-in-the- world * was the point of blaming Americans recently for our gun violence? If this isn't our problem to solve, what is? People don't go where they don't feel welcome.

We can't do much about the high Canadian dollar which will be an ongoing problem. The solution is to keep bringing on events which will attract people back on an ongoing basis. Caribana, Pride Week, big theatrical productions, special shows at AGO, etc. have all been proven draws. Without ongoing high-profile events, people will come once but won't necessarily return again and again, no matter how positive the experience. There is only so much "ambiance" to soak up, then you say "been there, done that" and start to look elsewhere.

 

[SD2]

The city simply isn't marketed very well. I wouldn't be surprised if that pathetic "Toronto Unlimited" campaign drove more people away In some ways, all it did was reinforce traditional stereotypes people have of the city.

Gun violence is not a big issue keeping people away. I think it's being very overblown as a cause for decreased tourism.

 

[EnviroTO]

The Toronto Unlimited campaign was a joke. Pictures of unique attractions and sights sell; weird things shaped from the letters T and O that look like a whistle, cock, hairdryer, or gun don't. With the opening of the Opera House, ROM expansion, and Art Gallery plus sights like a ride on the ferry near sunset, Guildwood Park, views from the CN Tower, interesting Architecure like ROM, AGO, ACAD, Casa Loma, and Osgoode Hall, and great kids destinations like Ontario Place, Toronto Zoo, Science Museum, and Canada's Wonderland and much more this city has a ton to offer. How can a marketing campaign for this city have no pictures and a stupid logo?

Service quality varies significantly from establishment to establishment. It is always unfortunate when there is bad service but bad service is not unique to Toronto and I have seen it everywhere.

Anti-americanism is a problem when it is directed at individuals and it is sad when people can't see that it is the same as racism to blame the foreign policies of George Bush and his administration on the entire country. Close to 50% of the population didn't vote for Bush and of those that did was their vote based on foreign policy or other matters? Attack the ideas, not the people.

I agree that gun violence has been overstated and exacerbated by politicians grandstanding and blaming the United States for providing the guns. If politicians had simply focused on the issue and talked about how the crime rate is lower than most places but any death is one too many then the whole thing wouldn't be blown out of proportion.

 

[tudararms]

I agree Enviro. At the end of the day it is all about perceptions though, isn't it? A negative story is leaked and overblown (SARS/gun violence) and all of a sudden we have a PR problem.

One thing I've heard over and over from Americans visiting here is how 'British/European' we feel compared to U.S. cities - Weren't we also called "New York run by the Swiss"? They love our vibrant streets, our markets, our neighbourhoods, our heritage architecture, our streetcars, our pubs and corner restos, and our general "old-worldliness". Again, these things may only be perceptions but there must be something in them if they exist and reoccur. Maybe they point the way to an identity that is stronly perceived by others but that we may be somewhat unconscious of. Is this so surprising though? I mean, we always tend to perceive/brand Montreal as being a North American Paris, although of course it's really nothing like Paris and you certainly don't see berets and hear organ grinders in the street (probably don't in Paris these days either for that matter ), but there is definately a 'flavour' there. To me, Toronto is multicultural and diverse and 'big city' American and all those things, but it has also seems to me to be a place that nicely blends more traditional European ways in a larger North American context. This I don't think you find in Edmonton or Chicago or Houston, etc. or even New York. Some may find it to a degree in New Orleans or San Fran, but the contexts are different. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting we all don bowler hats and kiss each other on the cheeks when greeting or stuff like that. In fact I don't think we do much more than what we currently do because it's there already to some degree. Maybe this is a unique identity we have, that says a lot about us, that is marketable and recognizable??

 

[TdotTrickyRicky]

I've heard that the accommodations in Toronto aren't particularly cheap, but I wonder how Toronto is reckoned to be expensive to Americans? At best it is neutral. Traveling in places like Chicago, New York, Boston etc. I found the
US to be much more expensive for items like shopping, food and entertainment.

 

[allabootmatt]

Tudararms: I have said before and will say again that that is the most common reaction I have heard from American friends/relatives visiting for the first time. Yet it is almost always in the context of shock/surprise...people simply have no idea what Toronto is or is like, which is truly a failure of marketing. Yet once they come, they love it...

 

[SD2]

"To me, Toronto is multicultural and diverse and 'big city' American and all those things, but it has also seems to me to be a place that nicely blends more traditional European ways in a larger North American context."

Unfortunately I think the most common stereotype is that the city is nothing more than a generic American one...which, as you've said, couldn't be further from the truth.