Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Recovery?
At the time of this writing in late 2004, SARS is occasionally mentioned in the
business sections of the newspapers as the financial statements of companies are
reported and commented upon (see, e.g., “Legacy Hotels Loses $9.2M in Final
Quarter of Bad Year, 
The Record,
January 28, 2004, C). Less than desired per-
formance is often attributed to the challenging economic environment that has
been experienced, including SARS. However, the bird flu is now receiving more
attention than SARS and warnings against overreaction, referring to the impli-
cations of SARS to public health, can be found. For example, a former Ontario
Recovering from SARS
149
H7898_Ch08.qxd 8/24/05 8:08 AM Page 149

---

public health official said, “Creating panic over things like bird flu is counterpro-
ductive—and distracts us from the problems that kill more people than SARS ever
did” (GM, February 2, 2004, A11).
The SARS scare, according to one source (GM, February 9, 2004) cost Toronto
“$500 million in tourism revenue and thousands of jobs.” The SARS outbreak
exposed deficiencies in Toronto’s fragmented and underfinanced tourism efforts,
which have been viewed as being inferior and less well financed than those of
competitors from the United States. The Greater Toronto Hotel Association, in a
voluntary agreement among its members signed in January 2004, imposed a 3%
hotel-room tax to be paid by visitors. Approximately 30,000 of 33,000 hotel rooms
are covered by the levy. Also, on February 11, the Ontario Provincial Government,
a new government that was not in power during the SARS crisis, announced an
investment of $30 million to promote tourism in Ontario. Of this sum, $2.8 million
was earmarked for northern Ontario. Toronto may be expected to be a major ben-
eficiary of this outlay, even more than northern Ontario itself, since for some inter-
national tourists Toronto may be viewed as being a gateway to the Canadian north.
This will be used to finance a new “branding exercise” as a tool for “genuine
renewal” of tourism in the region. As a result, Tourism Toronto will be able to
spend about $20 million in 2004 compared with $8 million in 2003. However, the
pent-up demand and the rapidly increasing value of the Canadian dollar are
encouraging some Canadians to look farther afield (GM, January 10, 2004, T2).
The market appears to be rebounding slowly. However, more travel may not
translate immediately into a corresponding growth in profits for the travel indus-
try, for customers have become used to bargains, and price-cutting efforts date
back to 2001. Businesses that slashed prices must now cope with the problem of
“raising these rock-bottom prices to more sustainable levels in the face of ongoing
price resistance” (GM, January 10, 2004, T2).