 |
August 24- August 31,2003 |
SARSstock failed city financially
Toronto's hospitality and tourism industry claims concert did not draw in visitors
By Peter Criscione
Originally Published: 2003-08-10
Although concert organizers have deemed it a major success, the city's hospitality and tourism industry is still in turmoil, a Toronto hotel official says.
Linda Sands, marketing director for Toronto's Sheraton Four Points Hotel, said last week's SARS benefit concert did not draw in the huge numbers of visitors they had initially hoped for.
"I would say the concert didn't have the effect [organizers] wanted it to," she said. "We are just devastated at the lack of reservations made."
More than a week has passed since rock and roll icon Mick Jagger declared to the world that "Toronto is back and booming".
On July 30, close to half a million spectators converged onto Downsview Park in the hope of boosting the city's profile on the international scene.
However, in the aftermath, only time will determine how quickly the record-breaking spectacle will turn things around for our ailing city.
Confident of the impact of the mega-concert on Toronto's tourism trade were event co-organizers Senator Gerry Grafstein and Liberal MP Dennis Mills.
"We are very happy with how things have unfolded," Mills said. "We have given the world a message that SARS is in the past and Toronto is open again for business."
The concert was the "dream child" so to speak of both Mills and Grafstein who organized it in an attempt to add a jolt to the city's SARS inflicted economy.
The desired effect of the concert took full force the following day, as television networks and dailies spread the news around the world. Coverage of the event was reported in many American newspapers including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
The concert, or "SARS-STOCK" as it was appropriately named, is the largest ticketed music concert ever to be held in North America. In all more than 475,000 tickets had been sold for the show, 50,000 of which were purchased in the United States.
The money made from the benefit concert will be donated to a relief fund for workers impacted by lost revenue. However, Sands said, in all, a mere 59 rooms were booked for people traveling to the Rolling Stones concert, a number much lower than initially anticipated.
Page 1/...Page 2
|
| Home / Back to Top |
|
|
 |
|
|
</ td>
