I have to agree with Jayx to a certain extent here. Government legislation has been a problem - especially the ban on tobacco advertising - it's been lethal for festivals. I know of at least TWO DOZEN festivals across the country that have been forced to shut down because of their reliance on tobacco funding. While this has affected other cities, Toronto has been the hardest hit.

HOWEVER

The problem isn't solely government. Where is local business to pick up the slack? It was public knowledge TWO YEARS in advance that reliance on tobacco advertising was going to be eliminated. Where were the businesses to take over the funding? Even well established festivals like Caribana have struggled to attract advertising dollars. Hell, there's doubt every year about whether Caribana is even going to be a go because of a lack of funding. Small business isn't pitching in either, although they're the first to complain when something is cancelled.

If you want to see tourism thrive in T.O. again, pray that the government doesn't ban alcohol advertising.

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Originally posted by Jayx1 2) put together a GOOD tourism package. Not a campaign with polar bears and the CN tower and the token minorities showing how wonderfully multicultural we are. Tourists dont care about that stuff. Id highlight the obvious like the CN tower but then id heavily promote toronto as a party spot with more lenient laws than the US, better shopping, and great theatre and authentic food. This is what toronto USED to be known as. Of course we wouldnt be able to promote these things till we win them back.

Tourism groups in toronto are trying to do just that and move away from the traditional, old and tired destination marketing ideas. Here is the new brand video for Toronto Unlimited. It was poorly received by Toronto politicians and local media because it was not your typcial boring toronto destination marketing video that included a picture of the CN tower, China town, etc etc.. but outside of Toronto in the US and in the international markets, consumers and tour operators loved it because... they got it and have been waiting for Toronto to do something out of the box and interesting.
TORONTO UNLIMITED BRAND VIDEO - DESTINATION MARKETING VIDEO

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Originally posted by Jayx1 Toronto is hurting and i put the blame directly on politicians who seem to be doing everything they can to kill tourism. Well guess what? its working.

Couldn't agree with you more. The Tourism industry in Toronto has to spend too much of its PR and Media efforts on fixing the damage that Miller and other politicians have done to this city over the past year.

You are correct in that Toronto Tourism has been hurt by
1) SARS - we are still recovering from the damage the press did on elevating that scare. Bird Flu has not helped in that regards either.
2) high dollar - canadians are not traveling within canada so domestic travel to Toronto has dropped. More Canadians can afford to travel to international locations and therefore opt not to travel within our own country. We have alos lost a signficant percentrage of our US overnight drive market as the cross border shopping is just not happening like it used to.
3) Politicians hurting tourism with their Anti-American comments. Anti-American comments in the media equates to us being an unfriendly nation/city and when Americans were polled last year as to why they were not or why they would not travel to Toronto this was very high on the list, if not their biggest concern.
4) Safety has become a major issue in the last year for obvious reasons and the media, like they did with SARS, is jumping all over this and not helping out Torontos image in any way.
5) Border crossing issues have had a huge affect on our US overnight drive market. People are confused about what the new passport requirements are and when they will come into affect. Far more Amercians do not own a passport as compared to Canadians so if they getting passport and using the passport to be a burden, we will lose them.

I don't agree that TOronto's night life is not thriving though. We do though do a poor job on communicating to consumers that Toronto has more to offer than the CN TOWER etc but our nightlife, for those who have visited the city, ranks very high on their list of reasons why they would return. I do agree that the introduction of more festivals is needed to help animate this city and that city officials in Toronto are not as open minded when it comes to such things EDM festivals. Montreal seems to have city support but Toronto can't seem to get there. The city officials in Toronto have become so very reactive when it comes to serving the citizens of Toronto that I think they forget to see the bigger picture for Toronto as a whole when it comes to these types of issues. Selling it won't be easy.

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Originally posted by nacarter I have to agree with Jayx to a certain extent here. Government legislation has been a problem - especially the ban on tobacco advertising - it's been lethal for festivals. I know of at least TWO DOZEN festivals across the country that have been forced to shut down because of their reliance on tobacco funding. While this has affected other cities, Toronto has been the hardest hit. HOWEVER The problem isn't solely government. Where is local business to pick up the slack? It was public knowledge TWO YEARS in advance that reliance on tobacco advertising was going to be eliminated. Where were the businesses to take over the funding? Even well established festivals like Caribana have struggled to attract advertising dollars. Hell, there's doubt every year about whether Caribana is even going to be a go because of a lack of funding. Small business isn't pitching in either, although they're the first to complain when something is cancelled. If you want to see tourism thrive in T.O. again, pray that the government doesn't ban alcohol advertising.

alcohol ad bans are next im sure. They are already going after junk food ads in the US. The fact is that very few companies have the advertising dollars to spend on big events like the tobacco and alcohol companies do. And those companies that do have the dollars are usually gearing their ads to an older audience hence the lack of funding.

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Originally posted by jester Everything in this country is illegal.

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery…" Winston Churchill

‎"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law" - Winston Churchill

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Originally posted by angelgirl I don't agree that TOronto's night life is not thriving though. We do though do a poor job on communicating to consumers that Toronto has more to offer than the CN TOWER etc but our nightlife, for those who have visited the city, ranks very high on their list of reasons why they would return.

You mean used to. I can find you a few examples of americans who come less frequently now since many venues have shut down. most of them forcibly.

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Originally posted by jester Everything in this country is illegal.

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery…" Winston Churchill

‎"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law" - Winston Churchill

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Originally posted by girllovingtvibe HOWEVER I think Planet Hollywood was a big waste of space of cash and thought the food sucked.....

AMEN!

As a Yank who visits Canada often, I would agree with some of your points - but the biggest one to me is the low trade for the American dollar these days. Even back in March it was like 1.31 CAD for 1 USD. Now it's more like 1.09 CAD for 1 USD. It stinks on the trade in and it definitely makes me spend less in Canada.

But what are we to do with Mr. Potato-head with his genius outsourcing, big company sheltering ways?

Kris

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Have Love Will Travel