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Tourism Toronto Getting its Butt Kicked by the Canadian Tourism Commission on YouTube

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / October 30, 2009

21 Comments

The Canadian Tourism Commission has done a great job putting together what I think are rather honest and compelling depictions of some of the finer aspects of life in Toronto.

Two dozen high quality YouTube videos of decent production value and great content are a lot more than Tourism Toronto can say they've done in this realm (they have zero videos to share on their YouTube channel).

Take this one, for example, which highlights some of the attractions of West Queen West and Leslieville.

Popular opinion says that Leslieville is well on its way to becoming the next West Queen West, yet many native Torontonians I know still haven't ventured out to discover what the rapidly gentrifying east Toronto neighbourhood has to offer. With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to find Leslieville featured in one of the CTC's new YouTube HD spots.

Other noteworthy videos include vignettes of the Distillery District and Yorkville (embedded below).



Also featured are our various ethnic neighbourhoods, the Island, Woody's in the Village, and much more. See the full list of the CTC's Toronto tourism videos.

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21 Comments

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kristina / October 30, 2009 at 11:09 am
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I work in the travel industry, and Tourism Toronto is the saddest excuse for a DMO I have ever seen. You should see their 'stock' images - welcome back 1984!
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James / October 30, 2009 at 11:33 am
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Toronto has always seemed to struggle with its tourism advertising. "Toronto Unlimited" anyone? For a city with so much to offer, it is quite happy to pin the status of its tourism sector on the back of the Canadian Dollar and gas prices.

These videos are ok. They're not very dynamic, but the quantity of videos makes up for it. It's too bad they kind of ignore "old Toronto", which I think is a niche whose potential hasn't been recognized. The Toronto Story is there to tell in a lot of amazing places like our churches and cathedrals, the St Lawrence Area and Fort York and we should be proud to tell visitors about it. Instead we'd rather tell people they should go to a fake castle that isn't even a century old yet. There's enough quality and depth here that it shouldn't be all about having the biggest tower in the world.
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Zed / October 30, 2009 at 12:11 pm
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Tourism Toronto spends much less in advertising and campaigns that other international cities of their size, and even less that other Canadian cities of smaller size. Why is this? Are we just so great that the world will come without us having to invite them? No. Tourism is the number one industry in the world, and Toronto Tourism needs to recognize this more and get their shit together soon. World class? No.
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sarah / October 30, 2009 at 12:37 pm
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James St Lawrence market is there - it's just on the 2nd page of videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arPGZSr3ml4&;feature=PlayList&p=914907F98D3E70B7&index=21
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Mark Dowling / October 30, 2009 at 12:44 pm
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Maybe we should disband Tourism Toronto and simply outsource the job to the CTC, paying them to create Toronto-specific content.
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Neville / October 30, 2009 at 12:44 pm
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Not bad. But the dirty secret about Toronto, and one of the reasons I think Tourism Toronto campaigns are doomed to fail regardless of the quality of advertising, is that this city is a crappy place to visit but it's a great place to live!
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jack / October 30, 2009 at 12:55 pm
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does the woman in the first video just had stuff injected in her lips???
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Michael / October 30, 2009 at 01:02 pm
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On Monday, I plan to apply for a job at Tourism Toronto. It seems like the perfect place for a guy who has zero ambition or creativity, sets his accomplishments bar nice and low, prefers to steal ideas rather than develop new ones and thrives as part of a team that is accountable to no one.
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jack / October 30, 2009 at 01:15 pm
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the videos on youtube should have been organized by city, a link on how to get there also will be useful, esp if this is for foreign tourists.. maybe that would be just too easy for potential visitors..let make them look thru all the videos and get them all confused, and go somewhere else online to figure out how to get there..not very good user's experience
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James replying to a comment from sarah / October 30, 2009 at 02:09 pm
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I know (and I'm glad that) St Lawrence Market is included. I believe I said the St Lawrence Area.
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James / October 30, 2009 at 02:16 pm
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Also, with the release of last Spring's Sorbara Report, don't expect Tourism Toronto to disappear. It will be quite the opposite as the province is working on formalized DMMOs for across the province. Tourism Toronto will be one of a dozen or so DMMOs that will represent regions across Ontario, and with them there will hopefully be a significant (and badly needed) investment in tourism marketing and organization by the Ontario Government. I think the next few years could be an exciting time for Ontario tourism.

And Neville, Ontario and Toronto are great places to visit. Tons to do, rather cheap and filled with various niches whether it be families, couples, boomers, backpackers, etc. Take an inventory of what we have and we have a great product. Just a matter of tapping into that potential.
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JJ replying to a comment from Neville / October 30, 2009 at 03:01 pm
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"...this city is a crappy place to visit but it's a great place to live!"


So true.
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JJ / October 30, 2009 at 03:06 pm
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Very nice ads though. "Honest" was a well-chosen word to describe them.
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Andrea / October 30, 2009 at 03:52 pm
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Here's some more videos about Toronto that we think are also good. More will go up soon. http://www.youtube.com/user/terrifictoronto
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W. K. Lis / October 30, 2009 at 05:24 pm
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At least the product placement ads in "Flashpoint" and "The Listener" help with getting Toronto a little better known, than as it used to be just standing-in for some other city. I, for one, enjoy seeing the streetcars, CN Tower, the Ontario College of Art & Design building, etc.. Lets see more of the Toronto scenes.
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mr hate / October 30, 2009 at 06:29 pm
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Tourism Toronto has horrible ads because the work is done by some hack small ad agency that does crap work without a shred of an idea behind it.
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W. K. Lis / October 31, 2009 at 09:00 am
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To be honest, do you want to spend $x for a 30-second commercial on TV in Salt Lake City, or spend the same $x on potholes on the street where you live?
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jack / October 31, 2009 at 10:08 am
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you can probably ask Discovery and national geography channels to give you video footage, and do some editing. voila, tv commericals..nobody can tell the difference
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ILoveTO / November 2, 2009 at 04:03 pm
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WOW guys...If you only knew what Toursim Toronto actually does for the city, you might change your tune! Quit being so ignorant and research things before you jump to your conclusions. Tourism Toronto is a great resource for any conference planner (I use them all the time)and visitor to the city. Personally, I love Toronto and the energy & vibe when visiting is great. To make a quick point...Tourism Toronto is the ONLY CVB that helps and offers great services in this country. I do feel bad as they don't receive enough funding...hopefully with the "Sorbara" report, they will get the money they deserve.
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Tourism Toronto fan / November 3, 2009 at 11:51 am
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And btw, Tourism Toronto has a partnership with the Canadian Tourism Commission and these videos were a result of that. Great research BlogTO. I guess it's easier to throw stones than to help support a fellow Toronto organization.
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Not a TT fan / November 3, 2009 at 10:40 pm
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I've never heard of the Canadian Tourism Commission, but I love that spot. I can't believe, as Tourism Toronto fan states, that Tourism Toronto had anything to do with this ad. Traditionally, Tourism Toronto's marketing initiatives are all directed at the high traffic shopping areas, where all the big hotels are: Bloor West/ Yorkville, Eaton Centre etc... Try to find a single mention of Leslieville in any of their marketing materials, you won't. Their focus: attracting conferences who spend money downtown at chains. For chambermaids and bartenders, this is good. For small businesses away from chain hotels, a total fail.
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