jn_12, I have been objective in my comment with no home bias, while you apparently have been very protective, particularly in the museum part. $14 for shoe museum, and you think travellers don't care about price. Seriously? If so, why not charge $30, or $50? Your argument doesn't really help. There are many many cities in the world, and travellers all have budgets. Nobody has to come and visit Toronto. People choose where to go based on their own cost-benefit analysis. To say cost is irrelevant for tourists is silly.
You are right that it is not fair to compare elements of Toronto with the best in the world. Not every city can be even compared with Paris or New York, that is true. However, that doesn't change the fact that Toronto lacks, IMO, one very strong selling point in terms of tourism. We have a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but all more or less second or even third class. Nothing really stands out. Every time I have friends who ask where to visit in Canada, I always tell them to visit Montreal/Quebec City if time is limited, because they have something special that you don't see in a typical large north American city. We really don't. That's a fact. It is only a matter of whether we admit it or not. Imagine someone from Asia or Europe with limited budget and schedule, how do you convince him to visit Toronto instead of say NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, or Miami? Just to say something like our Kensington Market is so interesting won't help -- these markets are only special in North American cities. In many other parts of the world, these markets are where the vast majority of people shop everyday. When I grew up, my parents always went to markets like these for grocery shopping, and nobody buys groceries, frozen meat and fish from grocery chain stores, simply because they hardly exist. Buying a dead fish that has been frozen for weeks for cooking would be considered ridiculous. Don't want to degrade it, but these markets are really not interesting at all for non-North American travellers.
I completely agree with you on your last comment. The high airline/airport tax is infuriating. Toronto, for what it offers, is really too expensive to visit for travellers.
Fortunately, the city is doing something to help it. The aquarium, for example, adds to the stuff that can be done. Another potential I can see is Toronto Islands, which should be made more interesting. I also hope Yonge st can be cleaned up, as it really doesn't show well. Good thing is it is transforming slowly. We should always remember that a city needs to give potential tourists a reason to go to, over other cites for a limited budget/timeframe. When someone is deciding where to spend 10 days at a cost of $2,000, give him a reason to pick Toronto over others. At least for now, we have trouble doing that.
