b13
New Member
^ you sound like your very passionate about this issue, maybe you should e-mail the Tourism Toronto with your concerns and give them advise I'm sure they'ss be glad to hear from people who actually care!
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Post: Another drop in American visits to Toronto
- Thread starter wyliepoon
- Start date
isaidso
Senior Member
I'm passionate about Toronto and passionate about Canada. It's important to contribute to the building of the cities we live in and the country we were blessed with. Perhaps I'll take your advice and will find a receptive ear at Tourism Toronto. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed. What I can't tolerate is complacency, incompetence, or indifference.
yyzer
Senior Member
Interesting that overseas visitors have basically reached the same levels as U.S. visitors......
JOHN BARBER
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
E-mail John Barber | Read Bio | Latest Columns
May 30, 2007 at 4:26 PM EDT
A record number of tourists visited Toronto last year and spent a record amount of money, raising hopes for even more dramatic gains as a new season kicks off with the opening of the Royal Ontario Museum's must-see Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, along with an abundance of government-sponsored cultural festivals competing for attention.
With numbers of same-day visitors from the U.S. continuing to stagnate, newly hired Tourism Toronto president David Whitaker is reluctant to trumpet Toronto's success in attracting greater numbers of overseas and domestic visitors.
Instead, he said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the city's future success in the fluid and cutthroat tourism business, where reputations thrive and wither on the slightest trends. But expectations are clearly running high.
"What I'm very optimistic about is the improved product we have to offer," Mr. Whitaker said, citing the coming Luminato festival and the "exciting and new" crystal as prime examples. The revamped museum will appeal equally to architectural aficionados and the merely curious, according to Mr. Whitaker. "It gives us a tremendous opportunity to sell and it gives us a tremendous platform to tell customers why they should reconsider Toronto," he said.
While tighter border controls, a strong dollar and the lingering effect of SARS continue to suppress the numbers of U.S. visitors to Toronto, those who do come are staying longer and spending more, according to the agency's latest annual report. It estimates U.S. visitors contributed $1.2-billion to the region's economy last year, compared to $1.1-billion in 2000.
Overnight U.S. visitors are especially amenable to such "consumable product" as new museums and trendy restaurants, according to Mr. Whitaker. "Those are the visitors you want." But to make sure they get the message, Tourism Toronto will be launching its largest-ever advertising campaign this summer.
The growing number of domestic and overseas visitors came as a pleasant surprise, as Toronto struggled to retain the interest of its core U.S. market. Last year, Toronto attracted a record number of overseas visitors, 1.6 million, who are said to have contributed $1.1-billion to the economy - just shy of the dollars spent by U.S. visitors.
The good news is that Tourism Toronto now enjoys the ample resources it needs to promote the city to the new breed of potential tourists in such promising markets as Mexico, India and Brazil. Thanks to a voluntary hotel tax implemented shortly after the election of Mayor David Miller in 2003, the agency currently receives $27-million annually to promote Toronto, amounting to 83 per cent of its total revenues.
The increased promotion is mirrored by steady increases in both hotel occupancy and room rates since the post-SARS low point of 2003. But nobody is willing to declare victory just yet.
"We have the resources," Mr. Whitaker said, adding that the agency now has the responsibility of "producing results based on those resources."
Too cagey to set a new benchmark for 2007, he said he is looking for a "marked improvement over 2006." Given the encouraging trend and the new attractions, that would seem eminently doable.
jbarber@globeandmail.com
JOHN BARBER
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
E-mail John Barber | Read Bio | Latest Columns
May 30, 2007 at 4:26 PM EDT
A record number of tourists visited Toronto last year and spent a record amount of money, raising hopes for even more dramatic gains as a new season kicks off with the opening of the Royal Ontario Museum's must-see Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, along with an abundance of government-sponsored cultural festivals competing for attention.
With numbers of same-day visitors from the U.S. continuing to stagnate, newly hired Tourism Toronto president David Whitaker is reluctant to trumpet Toronto's success in attracting greater numbers of overseas and domestic visitors.
Instead, he said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the city's future success in the fluid and cutthroat tourism business, where reputations thrive and wither on the slightest trends. But expectations are clearly running high.
"What I'm very optimistic about is the improved product we have to offer," Mr. Whitaker said, citing the coming Luminato festival and the "exciting and new" crystal as prime examples. The revamped museum will appeal equally to architectural aficionados and the merely curious, according to Mr. Whitaker. "It gives us a tremendous opportunity to sell and it gives us a tremendous platform to tell customers why they should reconsider Toronto," he said.
While tighter border controls, a strong dollar and the lingering effect of SARS continue to suppress the numbers of U.S. visitors to Toronto, those who do come are staying longer and spending more, according to the agency's latest annual report. It estimates U.S. visitors contributed $1.2-billion to the region's economy last year, compared to $1.1-billion in 2000.
Overnight U.S. visitors are especially amenable to such "consumable product" as new museums and trendy restaurants, according to Mr. Whitaker. "Those are the visitors you want." But to make sure they get the message, Tourism Toronto will be launching its largest-ever advertising campaign this summer.
The growing number of domestic and overseas visitors came as a pleasant surprise, as Toronto struggled to retain the interest of its core U.S. market. Last year, Toronto attracted a record number of overseas visitors, 1.6 million, who are said to have contributed $1.1-billion to the economy - just shy of the dollars spent by U.S. visitors.
The good news is that Tourism Toronto now enjoys the ample resources it needs to promote the city to the new breed of potential tourists in such promising markets as Mexico, India and Brazil. Thanks to a voluntary hotel tax implemented shortly after the election of Mayor David Miller in 2003, the agency currently receives $27-million annually to promote Toronto, amounting to 83 per cent of its total revenues.
The increased promotion is mirrored by steady increases in both hotel occupancy and room rates since the post-SARS low point of 2003. But nobody is willing to declare victory just yet.
"We have the resources," Mr. Whitaker said, adding that the agency now has the responsibility of "producing results based on those resources."
Too cagey to set a new benchmark for 2007, he said he is looking for a "marked improvement over 2006." Given the encouraging trend and the new attractions, that would seem eminently doable.
jbarber@globeandmail.com