While silly Toronto city councillors pitch their special yellow garbage bags on local business operators, tourism in T.O is on the decline.
It can’t be blamed totally on the travel fear that was one of the results of last Sept. 11.
It can’t even be blamed on the paucity of major new attractions, says the person who knows best, Duncan Ross, the city’s director of tourism.
Long before Sept. 11 local politicians travelling abroad made the somewhat depressing discovery that Toronto is not even a blip on the world tourist map.
Local politicians, busy maintaining politically correct agendas, have done a lousy job of promoting their home city.
To bring in the tourists, the city needs to be promoted better–to get out there and compete with vibrant places like Boston, Chicago and Montreal which have seen their visitor numbers boosted, Ross told a recent meeting of the city’s economic development committee.
While a tourism investment study last spring concluded visits are down in part because there are no new attractions, Ross said adding new features isn’t the only solution.
"It’s not the new panacea to just expect that a new aquarium complex will automatically put Toronto back on the map. In many respects, Toronto has been out-marketed by a number of different destinations," he said.
That’s honesty. If Ross isn’t too busy for the coming year, he should be drafted to run for a city council seat.
"Toronto has the products, maybe it doesn’t have enough rounds of ammunition in the clip," he said.
In an effort to spark the politicians into action, Ross came equipped with a report showing visitors to Toronto have fallen from 16.36 million in 1998 to 16.15 million in 2000 and 16 million last year. The decline is expected to drop further in 2002.
That’s a disgrace considering how visitors from our populous next door neighbour get a break because of the flagging Canadian loony.
The drop shows up in average hotel occupancy, expected to be 65 percent this year, down from 66 percent last year. It is projected to fall to 63 percent in 2003. Montreal’s average occupancy, on the other hand, is predicted to increase from 68 percent in 2001, to 70 percent for 2002, and 71 percent for 2003.
Committee members brainstormed on ideas to ease the problem, including: opening tourist offices abroad; petitioning the Ontario government to levy a hotel room tax to raise funds for promotion; insisting the federal government change its tourism advertising to sell cities; and cracking down in the homeless and litter.
"The federal government, when it advertises outside the country, always emphasizes the three Ms–mountains, moose and Mounties," said Trinity-Spadina Coun. Joe Pantalone. "Tourists really want to come to cities."
Blaming senior levels of government is a constant city hall theme. The moose of Pantalone’s colourful explanation aren’t only the fed’s natural ones but the fibreglass variety left around various Toronto neighbourhoods, courtesy of one of Mayor Mel Lastman’s promotional ideas.
Meantime, the provincial government has so far rejected the city’s request for a hotel room tax that would generate funds for promotional efforts.
In Montreal, a $2 per night levy raises about $9 million annually for Tourism Montreal while Tourism Toronto gets by on $4 million in grants from the city.
Ross says a hotel tax is "desperately needed, as Toronto is the only city in North America without a stable source of tourism funding."
Why are we not surprised?
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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