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Toronto Tourism

I smelled more pot on the street in Toronto than Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, it is largely confined to the coffee shops which are well ventilated - and the coffee shops are filled with tourists.

Sorry to derail this thread.
 
:eek:Flashback! :eek:One or two of the teachers used to smoke it during class when I was a student at OCA(D) in '71/72, in the days when Roy Ascott was President. Farm out, man ...
 
Erik T said:
I can't help but think that having the nearest active city core to western New York, most of Ohio and almost half of Michigan shouldn't be overlooked as a potential tourist draw, in my opinion.
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Not counting "college towns", of course.

Also, what's closer to Detroit--Toronto, or Chicago?
 
Never had a 3-hour wait at the border in Windsor - I've crossed it about 10 times by car since 2001, and 6 times by public transit. By car, it's 5-20 minutes wait most of the time.

Detroit is about 30-40 minutes closer to Toronto by car than Chicago, not including border crossing.

Speaking of close-to-home tourism marketing, have people noticed all the Pennsylvania ads lately, even bus wraps? They're advertising outdoors, but wilderness outdoors, not even Fallingwater, Dutch Country, never mind Philly and Pittsburgh. Ottawa's been advertising a lot too.
 
Yes, I've seen the Pennsylvania ads. I guess it works, because I'd never really thought of Pennsylvania before. I also like the new series of Casino Niagara ads all over the place.
 
Yeh I've seen those as well. I would recommend Pittsburgh for those that haven't been- great little city for a long weekend trip. The Carnegie museum and Andy Warhol Gallery are terrific. For 'scraper buffs make sure you go up the Dufresne incline for a view of the downtown. If you like beer and good food this was a neat little spot- http://www.churchbrew.com/. More on topic- I'm surprised TO (for such a large city) doesn't have many Brew pubs. The only really good one I've found is the Granite up on Mount Pleasant.
 
What about the notion that Toronto as a city doesn’t figure prominently as a “character†in movies and literature? For me, the description of cities and landscapes in the books I read growing up really influenced my desire and decisions to visit places. It’s easy to romanticize places like Paris, New York, San Francisco, Dublin etc because they are so part of our collective imagination. Visiting them allows you to slip into the mindset of the authors, painters and people that celebrate the life, history and culture that these cities exude. I think Toronto suffers from an identity crisis; maybe it’s trying to be too many things to too many people and so lacks a defining, unifying urban culture. I also agree that our fair city's looking a bit shabby.

Hey, it's my first post!
 
Being in Montreal, I realize that Toronto really underplays the PATH. Here, the "Underground City" is consistently included among the city's major tourist attractions. Everybody makes a big deal of it, and guidebooks even list it as one of the major "neighbourhoods" along with St. Catherine and the old port. All this despite the fact that the Montreal network is much more disjointed than Toronto’s and has long stretches of blank tunnel, compared with Toronto’s pretty much consistent shopping and such from end to end.
 
San Francisco
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Films like the classic Vertigo make the place look like a fantasy land.

However films like Taxi driver always made me think NYC was a hell hole.
 
unimaginative2 said:
Being in Montreal, I realize that Toronto really underplays the PATH. Here, the "Underground City" is consistently included among the city's major tourist attractions. Everybody makes a big deal of it, and guidebooks even list it as one of the major "neighbourhoods" along with St. Catherine and the old port. All this despite the fact that the Montreal network is much more disjointed than Toronto’s and has long stretches of blank tunnel, compared with Toronto’s pretty much consistent shopping and such from end to end.
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Considering that Toronto suffers cold and wet winters and stiflingly hot summers, this makes more sense than promoting seasonally limited areas like the waterfront.
 
...Yes, that's what I mean, Toronto is always a stand-in for other places. I know it's a bit cheesy, but when I read Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" as a teenager, I became obsessed with seeing New York and San Francisco. Our authors don't seem to tap into the connection to place as intimately as others do (ie James Joyce and Dublin, Bukowski and Los Angeles, Hemingway and Paris, Spain, Cuba etc, etc). I think Toronto does a poor job of promoting it's historical roots and our artists seem reluctant to make Toronto a "subject".
 
anitra416 said:
I know it's a bit cheesy, but when I read Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" as a teenager, I became obsessed with seeing New York and San Francisco.
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It's not cheesy at all. Nobody's obsessed with seeing Toronto, and there's no reason for them to be. We have no ocean, no mountains, no historic sites of international importance, etc. We rarely even have celebrity 'incidents' here since famous Canadians leave for the States and the rest of Canada hates us. However, we don't need to change or "improve" a single thing in this city for one book or movie or famous event to trigger obsessions and get people to visit...and this is, by far, the easiest and best way to make people a) aware of and b) want to visit Toronto. The problem is that such a book, movie or notorious event can't be too conscious or 'on purpose' or it'll just seem like another ineffective and ignored ad campaign.
 
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