we just need to be known for something. which we are not (and don't tell me multiculturalism). beauty: give it up with scenery cuz we just don't have it. the toronto culture: really nothing special to tourists unless you pick at it real bad. we can't even be thought of as a shopping mecca. we're really just another city.
I find this is a major problem with Torontonians; many tend to devalue their city far too much.
I've been chatting with people recently on the issue and they had similar sentiments. Anything you could bring up, for example, the Bata Shoe Museum, Gardiner Museum, etc. was countered with "you can find small unique galleries in any city".
Using this logic, why travel anywhere? We need to realize we have some great neighbourhoods, galleries, etc. and let people know. If we can't find value in our city, why should we expect tourists to?
gotta have something people can do/see here that's kinda special. perhaps toronto is the place where you can taste the best of the world.
and we need a lot more people living downtown.. create a much more bustling image of toronto and much better pedestrian presence. for one, we don't have anything like robson street in vancouver (hope queen st west will turn into something tourist-ly nice tho, and whenever dundas square decides to complete with metropolis). we need to look livelier in the city core.
Is Robson really more vibrant than anything in Toronto?
I've had some interesting discussions with people recently who feel Toronto is just a bland tourist destination (these are people who live in the city) that really has nothing to entice tourists. They feel we should be building huge monuments/projects that will gain international attention.
The people I was talking to said almost the exact same thing.
I think Toronto should invest in such monumental projects (and there are projects like that in the pipeline)...but then the novelty will invariably wear off. International attention is fleeting, except for major world cities which have many streams for generating international attention.
Creativity and innovation in design would be a great thing to build upon though. I think Toronto could have the most unique Waterfront in NA as far as design is concerned and it still wouldn't be a huge tourist draw.
I would also add that too many people look at things with a "grass is greener" attitude. If you live here, you obviously won't find it as interesting as a tourist. It's like people who are attracted to Europe for the history and architecture - for a lot the people who actually live there, that isn't a big deal - they're used to it.