T.O. Tourism In Trouble
Posted July 8, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
To hear some experts tell it, Toronto’s streets will soon be largely void of tourists unless the province starts to sex up its image.
According to Ryerson University professor and hotel industry expert Gabor Forgacs, reviving the tourism industry will take major investments from the province first and foremost.
“We tend to believe that Ontario is a lot better than it actually is. We are passionately biased, of course, because we love this place,” said Forgacs. “But if somebody has the option to choose where to travel, especially if it’s a U.S. traveller, they have increasingly better-looking options for a number of reasons.”
Among those reasons are the rising Canadian dollar, climbing gas prices and confusing passport regulations.
“It’s a combination of things, this perfect storm,” Ontario Tourism Minister Jim Bradley said.
Those factors make it hard to be an optimist in the industry, and Ontario Restaurant Hotel And Motel Association spokesperson Sid Girling certainly isn’t anything of the sort, noting American tourism has dropped 34 per cent since 2000.
“It started with 9-11 and the tightening of the border. Then we proceeded along to SARS — we had SARS twice — then we had West Nile,” he lamented. “Then we had the NHL lockout, as well as the rising Loonie, in addition to the August 2003 energy brownout. Now we have ballooning gasoline prices.”
In the meantime, the provincial government announced Sunday that it will give $2.5 million to Ontario Place for upkeep and renovations and some analysts are suggesting the only way to fill the void of U.S visitors is to push for those already in Canada.
“We heard from a lot of people saying, ‘Look, don’t forget the domestic market; it’s 75 per cent of our market,”‘ said Bradley, who added international tourism could also help shore up the struggling industry.
