My Take on Toronto Tourism

As my delightful little bio explains, I have been a tour guide in Toronto for the past two summers. I know the industry inside and out and could tell you pretty much every useless and bizarre fact about all the sites in the city. Many of these sites I have yet to actually visit, because who really wants to spend a Saturday going through Casa Loma rather than shopping?

There is one reason why people come to visit Toronto. It is the biggest city in Canada and Canada happens to be an English-speaking country that isn't the U.S., the U.K. or Australia. In terms of what Toronto has to offer to tourists, it is dreadfully limited. Even after exploring it from head to toe, I've come to the conclusion that we are leagues behind Montreal or New York. We've got a few decent museums and art galleries, but nothing compared to other world class cities. The only thing I will say Toronto has going for it on the tourist front is its theatre. There are always several Broadway shows in town plus tons of plays, concerts, ballets, operas for people to enjoy. Whether you want to shell out $80 for The Sound of Music or $10 for an indie band at the Mod Club, there's always something on.

The truth is, though, that the beauty of Toronto doesn't lie in the tourist sites at all. You could go your whole life without ever having gone up the CN Tower and could still claim to have experienced Hogtown. Toronto is special because of its people and the way they have placed themselves across this vast area. It is a city of neighbourhoods - a collection of unique enclaves with cultures borrowed from far ends of the world and people who bond together, if only for the sake of making sure trees don't get cut down. To me, what really characterizes Toronto is Kensington Market, but tourists hardly ever go there (probably because the hippies scare them). It's colourful, quaint, friendly and has influences from every part of the planet. It was started by European Jews who were alienated from the Anglo downtown area and became a haven for immigrants from all over the world. Italian kids like Johnny Lombardi would spend their Saturdays earning a few bucks walking around the neighbourhood and turning lights on for the Jewish neighbours. Much of that co-operation still takes place and can be experienced all over the city.

In order to improve tourism in Toronto, we don't need more touristy sites. If we give Torontonians what they want, rather than what tourists want, we'll have a better city both to live in and visit. Take the Waterfront, for example. It's gross. We've said that for so long but the city doesn't do anything about it. We have a chance to develop the East Donlands and if we push hard enough, we just might pull it off. Take public transit. It's pathetic. If we improve access to different areas of the city, more people will visit them. The Science Centre is awesome, but it's a bitch to get to. A lot of people still manage to go, but a more direct route from downtown would improve attendance. The Beaches is another area that has so much potential but gets neglected by tourists because they don't want to spend half an hour on a streetcar. I would imagine most people in the Beaches would probably prefer to keep the tourists away, but I'm sure they would appreciate better TTC access.

There is a common denominator to what Toronto needs to draw tourists and what Toronto wants as a city, but it's constantly overlooked. The problem is we keep trying to fabricate things that we hope will put us on the map (like Dundas Square) rather than embracing what makes Toronto a great city. We're never going to have architecture the way they do in New York. Get over it. What we can have is a bunch of functional, well-maintained, interconnected neighbourhoods each with great places to eat, interesting shops, entertainment and cool people. That should be our goal. Give the people what they want and the tourists will come.