[junctionist]

The new soccer stadium will be a draw, if only in the warmer months. But you need parking lots for the midways. It's too bad Ontario Place is more of an attraction for locals, because it is such a gem. I had a lot of great childhood memories there. The lantern festival is a step in the right direction. Ultimately though, people from the suburbs gather to see concerts at the amphitheatre and the parking lots are needed. The CNE does bring together a lot of people throughout the year, whether it's for a hockey game, trade show or jousting.

 

[calimehtar]

Hydrogen, Ontario Place is a failure because the buildings in it are so amazing but the only people who even get near it are, with some exceptions, people driving cars who don't see anything else. And conversely people who go shopping on the West End (King and Bathurst, Queen and Strachan) would never dream of stopping by Ontario Place on their way back. It's also a failure because, like a few other private enterprises on the western waterfront it's interfering with access to the lake.

Ontario Place could be fixed by improving the waterfront trail around it and by charging admission to individual rides rather than to the entire complex. I'd also remove Ontario Place parking from the waterfront and build a garage somewhere a bit further back with the same capacity.

The problem with The Ex has a lot to do with the Gardiner and Lakeshore cutting it off from the rest of the city, and development of Liberty Village is going to improve things. But still, half the property is a parking lot. They use the space for rides during the ex, but couldn't it be a park the rest of the year? Again a parking garage could provide the same capacity and take up less space.

Medieval Times and Musik Lounge are better than nothing but they don't really draw a lot of people, and the northwest corner of the Exhibition Grounds is no longer even used during the Ex. I live nearby and occasionally cut through the Ex to get to the waterfront and find that other than people going to soccer games the exhibition grounds nearly always feels like a vacant lot. I say, turn the northwest corner of the Exhibition grounds over to developers.

BMO Field is a huge step in the right direction, but compare it to the Skydome - the Skydome ends right at the sidewalk and the surrounding neighborhood is full of restaurants to cater to people entering and leaving events. BMO Field might as well be in the middle of a desert.

 

[scottycameron]

Tourism industry fears slump
Surging loonie making matters worse, operators say
September 20, 2007
THE CANADIAN PRESS

http://www.thestar.com/article/258728

OTTAWA – Tourism operators are calling on the federal government to help them offset what is already proving to be another big drop in tourism from the United States triggered largely by the strong Canadian dollar.

With the loonie virtually at parity with the U.S. dollar, its highest level in over three decades, operators are concerned that more and more Americans will pocket their bucks and stay home.

In fact, numbers released by Statistics Canada today appear to confirm their worst fears, as travel from the United States fell to its second-lowest level in 35 years in July.

Statistics Canada pointed the finger squarely at the soaring loonie, which increased for a sixth straight month, hitting a 30-year high of 95 U.S. cents. Today, it briefly achieved parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since November 1976.

With the parity coming less than six years after the loonie hit an all-time low of 61.79 U.S. cents, small tourist operations already hurting from six years of declining American business are reeling.

One thing the federal government could do to aid operators is restore – and spend significantly more on – tourism advertising, says Randy Williams, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

"If we had another $100 million . . . we'd have enough money then to start to compete in the United States in marketing to Americans, to let them know what we have," Williams said in an interview.

"We need that for sure."

Americans made only 1.1 million overnight trips to Canada in July, about 81,000 fewer than in June – a 7.1 per cent decline, the fastest drop in over four years.

The level was the lowest since the peak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis in May 2003, and the second-lowest level in over a decade.

Overall, travel from the United States dropped to 2.1 million trips, down 5.2 per cent – and the second-lowest level since record-keeping started in 1972.

 

[ganjavih]

Like the manufacturing sector, the tourism industry can no longer afford to sit on its ass and depend on a weak currency. Instead of complaining about a strong Canadian dollar, do something to make coming here more enticing!

 

[syn]

Like the manufacturing sector, the tourism industry can no longer afford to sit on its ass and depend on a weak currency. Instead of complaining about a strong Canadian dollar, do something to make coming here more enticing!

I agree. This could be a blessing in disguise.

 

[Automation Gallery]

Wow unbelievable, this thread has been dormant for almost four years...
anyways interesting article.

A Toronto tourism renewal

The latest report of Tourism Toronto, released earlier this month, shows an encouraging increase in overseas visitors (up 11 per cent). Because such travellers stay longer, they spend more. And because Toronto’s increase in restaurants and cultural amenities has grown so quickly in recent years, spending by overnight visitors jumped 5.6 per cent last year, faster than the increase in overnight visitors.

More.....http://www.thestar.com/article/1011096--olive-a-toronto-tourism-renewal

 

[Mystic Point]

I do not want to turn Toronto into a lewd drug infested hellhole.

I don't know where you have been, but Toronto already is a lewd drug infested hellhole.

 

[jn_12]

^ I don't know where you have been but...

Anyways, it's good to see tourism in Toronto doing well. I'm glad that the era of excuses (SARS, the dollar, 9/11, passports, and so on) appears to be behind us. I think the key now is to find ways to tap into the emerging BRIC markets.

Going forward the big issues for tourism in the city are airport fees at Pearson (and the Island, but less so there), Finding ways to use tourism as a solution for other city building issues (for example, heritage preservation/promotion or the recent (and shortsighted) war on graffiti), what to do with the CNE grounds and Ontario Place and how to ensure that a balance between tourist-friendly and local-friendly spaces/places is maintained.

 

[Torontovibe]

I vaguely remember reading that Toronto had something like 22 million tourists, back around the 1980s. Now they say it's at a record high of 10 million. Did our tourism drop that much or is my memory just malfunctioning? New York City has almost 50 million tourists a year and even Chicago gets around 47 million, from what I've read. Most of the large American cities have over 30 million tourists a year, so why is Toronto at a measly 10 million? It seems kind of odd to me, considering Toronto has so much more to offer. (in my opinion) How many of that 10 million are leisure tourists and how many are business men or people just visiting family?

We really need to take tourism more seriously. I was just in NYC a few weeks ago and the number of tourists, packing every attraction was overwhelming. There were so many of those tour buses, packed to the rafters. Toronto has 1/10 as many buses and even they are less than half full, this time of the year. I realize NYC is the big daddy of tourist cities but I think Toronto could do a whole lot better, if we actually put some effort into it. Yeah, that costs money and we all know how much this city likes to spend money on city building. We can't even get a Toronto museum or modern art gallery built. We need more major attractions, especially on the waterfront.

 

[adma]

I vaguely remember reading that Toronto had something like 22 million tourists, back around the 1980s. Now they say it's at a record high of 10 million. Did our tourism drop that much or is my memory just malfunctioning? New York City has almost 50 million tourists a year and even Chicago gets around 47 million, from what I've read. Most of the large American cities have over 30 million tourists a year, so why is Toronto at a measly 10 million? It seems kind of odd to me, considering Toronto has so much more to offer. (in my opinion) How many of that 10 million are leisure tourists and how many are business men or people just visiting family?

Well, it seems self-evident that definitions may have changed, "tourists" vs "visitors", et al...

 

[taal]

I vaguely remember reading that Toronto had something like 22 million tourists, back around the 1980s. Now they say it's at a record high of 10 million. Did our tourism drop that much or is my memory just malfunctioning? New York City has almost 50 million tourists a year and even Chicago gets around 47 million, from what I've read. Most of the large American cities have over 30 million tourists a year, so why is Toronto at a measly 10 million? It seems kind of odd to me, considering Toronto has so much more to offer. (in my opinion) How many of that 10 million are leisure tourists and how many are business men or people just visiting family?

We really need to take tourism more seriously. I was just in NYC a few weeks ago and the number of tourists, packing every attraction was overwhelming. There were so many of those tour buses, packed to the rafters. Toronto has 1/10 as many buses and even they are less than half full, this time of the year. I realize NYC is the big daddy of tourist cities but I think Toronto could do a whole lot better, if we actually put some effort into it. Yeah, that costs money and we all know how much this city likes to spend money on city building. We can't even get a Toronto museum or modern art gallery built. We need more major attractions, especially on the waterfront.

Something seems really wrong with those numbers. I remembe reading a while back Toronto has more tourists then Chicago ... this doesn't mean more people come to downtown Toronto but there are more people visting the Toronto area. I don't think there are good numbers to track exactly where they go.

 

[Torontovibe]

It's interesting how this British site puts Toronto as the second most visited city in North America. (by international tourists) Toronto is 14th over-all, so that's not too bad.


ARTICLE
Top 150 City Destinations: London Leads the Way
Oct 2007
by Caroline Bremner.

Euromonitor International is pleased to release the results of its first Top 150 City Destinations Ranking, providing insight into the the world's leading and most dynamic cities in terms of tourist arrivals.


London ranked top in Euromonitor International's Top 150 City Destinations. The British capital received an impressive 15.6 million international visitors in 2006, far above other world capitals such as Bangkok, Paris, Singapore or New York.


The 150 leading world destinations accounted for 27% of the global inbound tourism in terms of arrivals. Cities are the key driver of growth in the tourism industry, benefiting from the development of the air industry and the investment in infrastructure and iconic buildings. From Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum to Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers, the new skylines of cities attract millions of tourists to their airports and hotels, boosting the tourism industry to unprecedented levels.

With China emerging as a key travel and tourism market, the prospect of city tourism cannot help but look East. Will London resist the push?

London storms ahead of the pack

London attracted 15.6 million international visitors in 2006 to rank first in Euromonitor International's Top 150 City Destinations. The gap between the UK capital and other major cities increased as the presence of tourists in London's streets increased by 13% up on 2005.

Bangkok (2), Paris (3) and Singapore (4) follow London respectively, with around ten million tourists each. Hong Kong ranked 5th with 8 million, while the six-million-club included New York (6), Dubai (7) and Rome (8).

In 2006, 27 cities received more than 3 million international arrivals and 67 cities over a million. Overall, these 150 cities received 237 million tourists, accounting for 27% of the world's inbound tourism flows. The top150 cities received 6% more tourists than in 2005.

Top 150 City Destinations 2006
City Ranking '000 tourist arrivals
London 1 15,640
Bangkok 2 10,350
Paris 3 9,700
Singapore 4 9,502
Hong Kong 5 8,139
New York City 6 6,219
Dubai 7 6,120
Rome 8 6,033
Seoul 9 4,920
Barcelona 10 4,695
Dublin 11 4,469
Bahrain 12 4,418
Shanghai 13 4,315
Toronto 14 4,160
Kuala Lumpur 15 4,125
Istanbul 16 3,994
Madrid 17 3,921
Amsterdam 18 3,901
Mecca 19 3,800
Prague 20 3,702

More from Forbes Mag. (2009 figures)


Forbes released their Top 10 Most-Visited-U.S.-Cities list. Leading the list is Orlando, Florida. Taking the Number 10 position is San Diego, California. There are some surprises in between these rankings.

Here’s the Forbes list:

Orlando, Fla.: 48 million visitors
New York City: 47 million visitors
Chicago, Ill.: 45,580,000 visitors
Anaheim/Orange County, Calif.: 42,700,000 visitors
Miami, Fla: 38,100,000 visitors
Las Vegas, Nev.: 36,351,469 visitors
Atlanta, Ga.: 35,400,000 visitors
Houston, Texas: 31,060,000 visitors
Philadelphia, Pa.: 30,320,000 visitors
San Diego, California: 29,600,000 visitors

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

CTV News did a piece on this about a week/week and a half ago. I don't remember all the numbers but the piece was all about how tourism is up in Toronto, how much is spent by tourists/visitors (it's in the billions) and Toronto now has the third highest amount of tourists/visitors each year in North America. In this report, Toronto was third only to New York City and I guess Orlando if the Forbes list above is correct (but I thought they said New York & Chicago).

 

[vatche]

Don't forget that new York gets a lot of visitors from the surrounding states. They have millions and millions of people within a few hour drive which Toronto lacks! So don't compare the 2. Ny alone has 20 million people. Add Boston to that and jersey and on and on.

 

[jaycola]

I think building the tourism industry is a natural for Toronto and we do a piss poor job of promoting what the city has to offer.

What is the official website of Tourism Toronto? I can't say I knew without looking it up.
http://www.seetorontonow.com/

So I checked out the site to see what was happening today. I'd say Taste of Little Italy and the Much Music awards are two of the most "happening" events on today. I couldn't find anything about them on the site.

I believe better web tools are essential in attracting tourists to the city. The events and attractions should be linked to Youtube videos and Flickr photo sets so people can see what real people are doing when visiting the city.

Around 50% of the US population lives within a day's drive of the City. 150-180 Million potential visitors within a 10 hour drive. That's like the entire population of France, the UK and Italy that don't need to get onto a plane to get here. There is a huge potential market that I don't believe is being properly tapped.

Better integration within the entire region could also be a big selling point for Tourism. Instead of an overnight trip in Toronto, turning more people on to a week-long stay in the region would do as much or more for the industry as adding more tourists.

A trip itnerary planner might help add days to trips. A potential tourist could click on a menu of Ontario Adventures and create an extended stay plan.
Here is a sample week...

-1 night in a romantic Falls View Hotel. A day in Niagara Falls taking the "Maid of the Mist" and spending the evening at the Casino or seeing a live show.
-1 night in a B&B in the Niagara region Daytime Winery tour/Gastro Tour .
-3 nights in Toronto. Visit the CN Tower, ROM, "Taste of the Danforth" Street Festival, a day at "The Beach", see a musical.
-2 nights at a Muskoka/Kawartha resort/cottage. Swimming, water Skiing, campfires.

There is a quick week in the region. Lots of variety for any tourist. Don't wan't Niagara, choose Collingwood and Wasaga beach. Don't want the Cottage, visit Stratford or Shaw instead. A hike on the Bruce Trail, camping in Algonquin, even a visit to Ottawa... There is so much the region has to offer.

Not that you couldn't fill an entire week with just the city but more regional integration would be an asset to tourism.