January 26, 2004
Memo to new Toronto Mayor David Miller: When you’re through killing off bridges linking Toronto Island to the mainland, and tired of shadow boxing with the Toronto Port authority, a topic called tourism needs your prompt attention.
On the tourism radar, the City of Toronto isn’t even a blip. Our city lacks a strong image, which can be the clarion call in luring tourists.
For the sake of economic survival, Toronto badly needs a clear and compelling brand to sell itself to tourists. Not only does it need this boost in PR, any marketing efforts directed towards boosting tourism should be managed by a single entity.
This is the commonsense advice stemming from a report on tourism recovery efforts after the SaRS outbreak.
"Separate tourism recovery efforts in the Toronto region were fragmented because of branding by different parties," says the Toront03 alliance report. "In the absence of a strong brand identity for the Toronto region, each party developed its own brand to fill the short-term need."
Currently, various branches market Toronto, from the city itself to Tourism Toronto as well as the provincial and federal governments.
all have done a less than inspiring job. and it wasn’t too long ago, when former Mayor Mel Lastman returned home from a trade mission to the Orient where he had learned that Toronto was virtually unknown as a tourist destination. Lastman was particularly piqued that the city had spent millions to boost tourism to no avail.
"(Toronto) can’t afford to have its limited resources fragmented across different organizations or agencies, each carrying out potentially conflicted branded programs," the report stated.
David Pecaut, who chairs the alliance, said Toronto, unlike other cities, doesn’t conjure up any strong images. "If anything, all that comes up is that it is safe and nice," he said, adding that his group is prepared to work with all the tourism groups to come up with a brand within six months.
"Everybody has a story about the experience of their destination. We just don’t have that right now," said Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of Tourism Toronto.
Tourism in Toronto had already been on the downturn before the deadly SaRS outbreak of last spring. at one time, tourism brought in revenues of $4 billion a year, and provided some 95,000 direct jobs.
The SaRS impact on Toronto was significant. From March 2, when the first SaRS death was reported, until mid-October, Toronto lost $518 million in tourism spending–a 27 percent drop compared with the same time period a year ago. That, of course, translates into job losses as well as business failures.
Hotel occupancy rates have slowly been on the mend, and in November rates were almost within 3 percent of last year’s. But Pecaut cautions it’s still a fragile situation, especially since several groups cancelled conventions scheduled for next year.
Toronto needs ideas to boost tourism.
are you listening, Mayor Miller?
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