Marketing Canada to Tourism in the Wake of SARS

However, the traveling public perceived SARS as being a crucial threat, and some within Canada blamed American media for showing images of mask-wearing Chinese whilst discussing SARS in Canada--few masks had been noticed on the streets of Toronto according to Canadians (Drummond, 2003).

The effect of SARS on Canadian tourism was significant. The amount of tourists visiting Canada in Might 2003 was the lowest for the month in 13 years, and occupancy at some Toronto hotels in April 2003 was as low as 29 percent. Hotels that typically have occupancy rates of 95 percent through summer posted occupancy rates of only 60 to 65 percent. Hotels, resorts and related firms laid workers off as tourists failed to materialize, and the tourist industry--already hurt by a stronger Canadian dollar--continued to slide downward (Drummond, 2003).

Having a deadly disease break out in a major tourist destination is not excellent for the tourist industry. It matters little that there have been pretty few deaths from SARS compared to other communicable diseases; the international media.

 

quickly seized on a story and communicated it about the world. Although the outbreak of SARS in Canada was limited to the Toronto area, and Toronto bore the brunt from the cancellations, Canada as being a whole also suffered. Mad cow disease in Alberta also caused concern among travelers who did not necessarily differentiate in between diseases or geographic regions, plus a second outbreak of SARS followed the very first following an interlude of only several weeks (Chandler, 2003).

The public and private sectors came together in June 2003 to type the Toront03 Alliance, a consortium dedicated to helping rebuild the tourist economy of Toronto via strategic promotion and communication activities ("Toront03," 2003). 1 of the first events sponsored by Toront03 was a concert by the Rolling Stones held in July that attracted more than 400,000 people. Proceeds inside the concert were utilized to aid people inside tourist and related industries who had been affected by the drop-off in tourism. "Toronto is back and it is booming!" declared Jim Belushi, a Canadian native, at the concert.

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