So, Toronto hotels aren't doing too well these days. apparently they are expecting 66% occupancy in 2006, which is up somewhat from the 58% occupancy rate the city's hotels were reduced to due to the SaRS scare. at a recent Toronto Tourism press conference, Greater Toronto Hotel association president Rod Seiling informed the media that american tourism in Toronto was still down by some 33% and the slight increase in hotel occupancy is due mainly to a 20% increase in European tourists.
Seiling claims the reason that americans aren't coming here has to do with the "three Ms", that is moose, mountains and Mounties. He believes that americans just don't know how diverse and cosmopolitan Toronto really is and if someone just let him spend a lousy $30 million to inform americans of Toronto's "world class" status, then they will come!
Haven't they just done something like that with the $3 million "Toronto Unlimited" branding exercise? I seem to recall governments spending somewhere in excess of $50 million to repair the damage done to the tourism industry by SaRS. and Mr. Seiling believes that americans still associate Canada with moose, mountains and Mounties! Maybe next Seiling will tell the story of the americans crossing the border in July with skis.
Gee, Mr. Seiling. Do you suppose americans might not be coming here because of the things Canadians say about them? Could it be that the Carolyn Parrish "damn, americans. I hate the bastards" quote was actually listened to by those rubes in the US? Might it have something to do with the fact that Toronto's mayor is blaming Toronto's "american-style" gun crime wave on the americans? Is it possible that recently defeated Prime Minister Paul Martin's diatribes against the US have somehow convinced american tourists that they're not exactly welcome here?
Do you think that the 20% increase in European tourists is because as a people Canadians are starting to have a lot more in common with Europeans than with americans?
Some local pundits have rightfully pointed out that Toronto has some problems. To begin with, the city is really dirty with an abundance of trash and graffiti. It's crawling with homeless people and aggressive beggars. Then there is the crime rate that our leaders keep telling us is really falling, with multiple shootings occurring on an almost daily basis. and those tourists that finally do come here find that there's no place to park and everything is outrageously expensive, not to mention that Toronto isn't exactly famous for being overly "friendly".
For those who do not remember the backlash against France for its anti-american position at the start of the Iraq war, the French are still smarting from a boycott of many of their exports in the US. Some americans even went so far as to rename a fast-food staple "freedom fries". I am frankly surprised that they haven't started calling certain pork products "freedom bacon", some birds "freedom geese" and that river in Texas the "freedom river".
If we really want americans to visit Toronto it would help if we focused on them instead of their money. No one wants to visit a place where the inhabitants would be just as happy if you'd just sent the money and stayed home.
Rather than throw another $30 million into the toilet as Mr. Seiling proposes, he might be better off taking one tenth of that money and spending it right here on a campaign that reminds Canadians just how important america is to the Canadian economy. That would be a whole lot more effective than any slick ad campaign.
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