Post: Another drop in American visits to Toronto

[salvius]

3 - STOP coming up with lame excuses such as the stronge CDN $ or SARS or 9/11!!! Europe is far more expensive than Canada, you don't see they have problem attracting tourists. It's all about marketing!!! Blame it on their crappy marketing campaigns, clueless as they don't know how to market the city.

I was with you until the Europe part. Here's the thing, I think Toronto is a pretty good city, certainly things to do and see. But can you then say, enough of Toronto, let's take the flight to Barcelona to $30, then London for $30... Or let's take a relatively cheap high speed train to these locations?

Toronto is situated, true, in one of the continent's most interesting spots. NYC, Boston, Chicago, Montreal, QC, all are close. However, the infrastructure is such that you cannot really do this kind of tourism without seriously large stack of $$$ and the distance is still greater. Europe as a whole (even East Europe is getting into the show!) is one big tourist destination, and you can see and do a lot, without spending your life fortune on transportation, not to mention you have a variety of options to get from point A to B--whatever is convenient for you!

As it is, you really cannot criss-cross the continent (even a relatively small part of it) all that easily, so people would naturally limit themselves to fewer locations. And in that equation, NYC is always going to have a vastly larger tourist draw.

 

[CDL.TO]

I have to beat American tourists off with a stick on the weekends down here in Niagara, and summer hasn't even started yet. Being completely self-interested and blind to the financial well-being of those around me, I'd be all for their numbers dropping off further. It would be nice to not have to explain why the local grocery store doesn't have any beer, why prices and change aren't provided in US dollars, or why the sign says $4.49 but the total says $5.12.

 

[vicente]

As it is, you really cannot criss-cross the continent (even a relatively small part of it) all that easily, so people would naturally limit themselves to fewer locations. And in that equation, NYC is always going to have a vastly larger tourist draw.

Which is why attracting tourists from New York State is so important and why the news of fewer Americans coming over to visit should not be taken lightly.

 

[Venti de Milo]

Which is why attracting tourists from New York State is so important and why the news of fewer Americans coming over to visit should not be taken lightly.

Seriously, let's put this the opposite view...if you have been to NYC or Chicago or Boston or any other states many times...would you still go often?

Maybe the drop of Americans (esp the people near the boarder) coming here because they have been here many times and decided it's time to go somewhere. That's why it's time for Toronto to go find new "customers" instead of telling these (been here before) "customers" to come back again and again.


Salvius:

I think you missed my point. Toronto Tourists co. keep giving lame excuses that people don't come here because our $$ is strong. That's totally BS! Regardless, Toronto is still a CHEAP destination comparing to Europe and Asia (Japan, HK etc) but people still visit those cities. If people want to visit a city, it doesn't matter how expensive, they will still go visit if it appeals to them.

 

[sl64]

I think you missed my point. Toronto Tourists co. keep giving lame excuses that people don't come here because our $$ is strong. That's totally BS! Regardless, Toronto is still a CHEAP destination comparing to Europe and Asia (Japan, HK etc) but people still visit those cities. If people want to visit a city, it doesn't matter how expensive, they will still go visit if it appeals to them.

The difference is that Europe and Asia don't directly compete with US cities for US tourist dollars. Toronto does.

I don't understand how the exchange rate and passport situation are "lame excuses". I agree that SARS is a lame excuse seeing as it's 2007 already, but how can you deny the other two have a profoundly negative effect on US tourism? It's now basically as expensive for Americans to travel to Toronto as to an American city, with the generally higher cost of plane/train/bus tickets to Canada offsetting the small remaining advantage of the US dollar. Combined with the fact that most Americans need to take out passports to come here (which is enough of a hassle here, let alone in the paranoid US... not to mention that proportionally fewer Americans have passports to begin with I believe) and NY/Chicago's more established reputation... the deck is obviously stacked against Toronto when it comes to attracting US tourists. This isn't a lame excuse, it's a perfectly valid excuse.

This isn't to say that Toronto has no way of improving the situation. Obviously the city does. But it can't continue to rest its tourism industry so heavily on the price and convenience factors, and it'll take some time for that change to work itself through the system... though a decent marketing campaign would do wonders to speed it up. Maybe the price and convenience factors compensated for just how bad a job the city has done of promoting itself. Now that they're gone, the city better get its act together.

 

[ShonTron]

(which is enough of a hassle here, let alone in the paranoid US... not to mention that proportionally fewer Americans have passports to begin with I believe)

Yes, this is very much true.

Sometimes I just don't understand where the paranoia comes from. New Yorkers aren't running around scared. Californians are rightfully more worried about the next Big One (as in an earthquake, yet there's still a lot of typical inaction and incompetance in the same vein as pre-Katrina New Orleans and response to said disaster). Chicago didn't stike me as paranoia world, nor did the interior of Michigan.

Maybe I need to spend more time in "Red States".

Anyway, with ROM and AGO coming on line soon, I would sure hope that our pathetic tourism office changes gears.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I don't know what a "typical" tourist is or why they would find TO boring. Is there evidence of that?

I think the larger problem is marketing. Anyone thinking about the marketing fiasco of our last "branding"?

Toronto is a great place to live, probably one of the best cities in Canada for quality of life, but it's not a tourist destination. London, Paris, New York, Rome....those are tourist cities. If I was an American living in the Buffalo area and wanted to make a day trip, I wouldn't touch Toronto. If I was inclined to go to Canada, I'd go to Niagara for some wine or Stratford for a show.

 

[Admiral Beez]

2 - instead, it should target globally, esp. Asia! That's a huge market there.

How many daytrippers and overnight visitors are we going to get from Asia? That's the decline we need to address.

Back on the USA, IMO, Canadians do not like Americans, and our media, politics and public opinion clearly show this.

 

[Bogtrotter]

"Canadians do not like Americans, and our media, politics and public opinion clearly show this."

When they smarten up and see the light maybe we'll like them better.

 

[interchange42]

If I was an American living in the Buffalo area and wanted to make a day trip, I wouldn't touch Toronto. If I was inclined to go to Canada, I'd go to Niagara for some wine or Stratford for a show.

Toronto gets piles of Buffalo visitors, for lots of good reasons...

like dining, shopping, concerts, theatre, gallery and museum shows, festivals, sports events, nice neighbourhoods to stroll in. Some of them probably even wander through Cabbagetown dreaming that some day Buffalo might be able to gentrify some part of town.

Things that make a city good to live in, also make it good to visit.

I don't quite get why you think nearby neighbours - okay, neighbors - wouldn't touch Toronto, when you've been pining to get back here yourself.

42

 

[roch5220]

1 - it's time for Toronto to STOP focusing on the American tourists. That's just very short-sighted, small reached target. I can't believe they keep the same strategy like 10-15 yrs ago, targeting the Americans.

2 - instead, it should target globally, esp. Asia! That's a huge market there.

3 - STOP coming up with lame excuses such as the stronge CDN $ or SARS or 9/11!!! Europe is far more expensive than Canada, you don't see they have problem attracting tourists. It's all about marketing!!! Blame it on their crappy marketing campaigns, clueless as they don't know how to market the city.

1&2 - Lets stop focussing on a very close neighbour where it is very easy to drive or take a short flight?

3 - Considering the majority of americans do not have passports, and the relative cost of visiting Canada has gone up by 40% vs. 2002, both issues are not lame excuses, but facts.

 

[Pep'rJack]

neighbours - okay, neighbors

No! NOT "okay"!

Vs.

Defend our sacred 'u' to the bitter end!
.

 

[Admiral Beez]

When they smarten up and see the light maybe we'll like them better.

And that, while said in jest, is precisely what Americans think of and hear when they come to Canada. I rarely visit Quebec, since everytime I go, I get snooty'ness and rude reception from those in the service industry, and think, why should I give them any of my money? An American says the same about Canada.

So....if you're in the Toronto or Canadian service industry, ask yourself, what have I or my business done to cater to and attract my crucial American customers?

 

[Admiral Beez]

I don't quite get why you think nearby neighbours - okay, neighbors - wouldn't touch Toronto, when you've been pining to get back here yourself.

Because I've been living in the eastern outskirts of Canadian civilization. Of course folks from Buffalo come here, I didn't mean all of them, but less of them are coming for the reasons I have stated.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Defend our sacred 'u' to the bitter end!
.

What's with the gay looking pants? Not that's there's anything wrong with that