Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Post-WHO Travel Advisory
The WHO travel advisory came as a complete surprise in Toronto and added even
greater urgency to an already problematic situation.
On April 23 (GM), the mayor of Toronto urged residents to go about their lives
as normal and was quoted as saying: “It’s not the disease that’s doing the damage;
it’s public perceptions about SARS that’s hurting Toronto’s tourism industry, and
it’s getting worse.” The next day, following a moment of silence in recognition of
the 16 victims who had died in Toronto to that time, a 10-hour emergency city
council meeting debated the role of federal, provincial, and city commitments to
advertising budgets. Midway through the meeting, the mayor announced that the
city would soon launch a $25 million marketing campaign (city $5 million, provin-
cial and federal governments $10 million each). This announcement came amid a
flurry of measures, including calls for the province to give the city the right to levy
a hotel tax, which was approved by the city council at the end of the meeting. In
addition, the Medical Officer of Health was praised for her handling of the episode
and she indicated that she could give the “all clear” if there were no new cases of
SARS in 10 days. Nevertheless, a headline on April 25 (GM) read “Worst Is Yet to
Come for Toronto, Officials Warn.”
Approximately 1 week later, on April 29, following the provision of new infor-
mation by Canadian health officials, the travel advisory was rescinded. It had been
20 days since the last case of community transmission. Nevertheless, the president
of Tourism Toronto, the city’s travel and convention marketing agency, indicated
that the damage had been done and that, as a minimum, it could take 2 years before
tourism would fully recover. On the same day, Ontario pledged to put in place a
5-month tourism tax holiday, a $118 million worldwide advertising campaign, and
a $10 billion business recovery strategy (GM, April 30, 2004).
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On May 14 the WHO took Toronto off its list of places affected by SARS. On
May 22 the situation was further complicated by a case of mad cow disease in
Alberta, which heightened fears for the recovery of the tourism industry (GM, May
22, 2004).
On about May 14, a proposal to hold a blockbuster event in the form of an out-
door concert headlining the Rolling Stones came to prominence. The concert was
a key component of a strategy endorsed by a broad-based recovery group called
the Toronto Tourism Recovery Coalition. This would be the anchor event, which
would potentially attract hundreds of thousands of fans, of a strategy to fill hotels,
restaurants, and other Toronto attractions. There is some irony in this as some years
before the group had been less welcome in the city and members had been charged
for possession of narcotics! The debate over this event and the planning for and
occurrence of the concert make up a complex story. Suffice it to say that the con-
cert eventually took place on July 30, 2004, amid much fanfare and considerable
controversy. A study of credit card expenditures between July 27 and August 2
found significant increases of approximately $75.2 million in expenditures com-
pared to the previous week. Restaurants enjoyed the largest (59.2%) increase in
business, followed by travel and entertainment (20.6%), photography and supply
stores (18.5%), drug stores and pharmacies (14.1%), hotels (7.1%), car-rental
agencies (5.1%), and retail (5.1%). However, the retail sector received $39.6 mil-
lion of the increased revenue, followed by restaurants ($20.9 million) with hotels
only receiving $1.9 million. The relatively small injection of expenditures into
hotels suggests that the event attracted primarily a day-trip local and regional mar-
ket rather than overnight visitors. Regardless, a rough calculation suggests that the
federal and provincial governments would have recouped about $12 million in
taxes from the extra spending, more than doubling the $5 million that the two gov-
ernments laid out in funds to bring the Rolling Stones and other acts to Toronto
(GM, August 7, 2004).
Also, a newly formed nonprofit corporation, the Toronto03 Alliance, using $1
million in seed money provided by Canada’s five major banks, put forward a pri-
vate sector plan called “Summer in the City” to promote cultural and sporting
events in and around the city. Prominent entertainers agreed to record, free of
charge, public service announcements for TV and radio. One of the most success-
ful initiatives was the sale of cheap packages combining a hotel room, fine dining,
and admission to a show at much reduced prices. These offerings were taken up
rapidly, particularly in the local and regional markets, and they have been so suc-
cessful that they continue today, more than 2 years later.