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I doubt your claim about Toronto receiving more international tourists.
But we are not comparing the type of tourists are we? If Chicago has significantly more tourist activity (hotels, restaurants, activities, stores) than Toronto, then clearly they are NOT SIMILAR cities.
I'll give you hotels, but restaurants, activities and stores? No, I think Toronto easily holds its own against Chicago in that regard.
It's sometimes hard to draw conclusions about which cities between places like Toronto and Chicago are more popular with tourists.
Chicago for example is the top convention, meeting and event city in the U.S. All of these people count as tourists/visitors.
Toronto is the main business centre for all of Canada. Business travellers also count as tourists/visitors.
Toronto's foreign-born population is twice the percentage of Chicago's. This means more people from Mumbai and Moscow are coming to Toronto to visit relatives, check the place out, attend weddings, etc. because the family ties are more recent.
Good post and we need to keep these things in mind when comparing tourism numbers. If there was a reputable source that tracked International leisure travelers specifically, I would love to read it. I think that the numbers in that case would be relatively similar between the two cities.
Just my observations after spending a good amount of time in both cities. Chicago is definitely more tourist friendly and has a more grand downtown core than Toronto. When it comes to activity and life I am really hard pressed to favour one over the other. They both strike me as places that have a nice vibrancy to them and have city cores that are attractive to both visitors and residents alike. The only noticeable difference is that Toronto dies down a bit earlier than Chicago, but the majority of the day they are about equal.
As far as which city reminds me the most of Toronto, I voted for Queens. Even though I have noticed alot of people comparing it to Australian cities. I would love to visit Australia one day and observe that for myself.
As far as which city reminds me the most of Toronto, I voted for Queens. Even though I have noticed alot of people comparing it to Australian cities. I would love to visit Australia one day and observe that for myself.
I find Melbourne reminds me of Toronto. You often hear Toronto-Sydney and Montreal-Melbourne based solely on size rankings but I don't really agree.
Melbourne and Toronto are reserved and sensible cities. Taking care of business. Grey, stately old architecture. True heirs of the British Empire that have taken a huge multicultural turn. Both cities are famed for their trams and also the layout of the city is reasonably regular.
Sydney is more of a mix of Montreal and Vancouver. A bit of a disorganized, devil-may-care metropolis that still ends up delivering like a first world city anyway. Layout is haphazard. It shares a shiny glass tower and silver-gray Pacific Rim ocean city look with Vancouver. Another aspect of this is the overwhelming question of whether the boom will go bust at one point (or if the city will burst at the seams) and kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
A city is not only made up of skyscrapers, malls and stores. So, another area where Toronto and Chicago are completely different is at the level of sports activity.
Chicago is a big sports city. Despite being the same size/ population and having teams in the same leagues (NHL, MLB and NBA) .... sports in Toronto does not compare to the sports craze and fan following in Chicago. This also makes the two cities very different culturally.
I find Melbourne reminds me of Toronto. You often hear Toronto-Sydney and Montreal-Melbourne based solely on size rankings but I don't really agree.
Melbourne and Toronto are reserved and sensible cities. Taking care of business. Grey, stately old architecture. True heirs of the British Empire that have taken a huge multicultural turn. Both cities are famed for their trams and also the layout of the city is reasonably regular.
Sydney is more of a mix of Montreal and Vancouver. A bit of a disorganized, devil-may-care metropolis that still ends up delivering like a first world city anyway. Layout is haphazard. It shares a shiny glass tower and silver-gray Pacific Rim ocean city look with Vancouver. Another aspect of this is the overwhelming question of whether the boom will go bust at one point (or if the city will burst at the seams) and kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
A city is not only made up of skyscrapers, malls and stores. So, another area where Toronto and Chicago are completely different is at the level of sports activity.
Chicago is a big sports city. Despite being the same size/ population and having teams in the same leagues (NHL, MLB and NBA) .... sports in Toronto does not compare to the sports craze and fan following in Chicago. This also makes the two cities very different culturally.
Yes, the sporting culture in Chicago is completely different from Toronto. The only team in Toronto that gets peoples juices flowing is the Leafs. The intensity of Blackhawks fans and Leaf fans are very similar (I still think Leafs fans are even more loyal). I know the Raptors have this "We the North" stuff going on now, but you have to keep that up for longer than a couple seasons to be considered a true Basketball town.
The sporting culture of Toronto is most similar to Detroit. Where multiple sports leagues are represented, but Hockey is still king no matter what.
Yes, the sporting culture in Chicago is completely different from Toronto. The only team in Toronto that gets peoples juices flowing is the Leafs. The intensity of Blackhawks fans and Leaf fans are very similar (I still think Leafs fans are even more loyal). I know the Raptors have this "We the North" stuff going on now, but you have to keep that up for longer than a couple seasons to be considered a true Basketball town.
The sporting culture of Toronto is most similar to Detroit. Where multiple sports leagues are represented, but Hockey is still king no matter what.
Yes, sports culture and tourism (which you guys unnecessarily complicate) make the ground reality in Chicago very different when compared to Toronto. Raptors are a young team and may be good for many years. But you need decades to build a loyal fan following before you can be deemed a "sports town".
Detroit is a bad example I think because their baseball and football teams have been good for a while now. Plus you cannot ignore the whole Michigan college football scene with two big ten teams.
Yes, the sporting culture in Chicago is completely different from Toronto. The only team in Toronto that gets peoples juices flowing is the Leafs. The intensity of Blackhawks fans and Leaf fans are very similar (I still think Leafs fans are even more loyal). I know the Raptors have this "We the North" stuff going on now, but you have to keep that up for longer than a couple seasons to be considered a true Basketball town.
The sporting culture of Toronto is most similar to Detroit. Where multiple sports leagues are represented, but Hockey is still king no matter what.
None of the big three cities in Canada are very good sports towns, and I say this even in spite of the passion that is often talked about with respect to their NHL clubs.
If you take what is arguably the most rabid sports fan base in Canada (the Habs in Montreal), it still IMO pales in comparison to the sports passion (often for multiple teams in multiple sports, and often pro and college) in most large or medium-sized American cities.
For all the talk about it, I am not sure that Habs-mania in Montreal is really a bigger deal than the passion for the Atlanta Braves or the Indianapolis Colts in their regions. And no one really talks about these places as being rabid. They're just normal for the States. (I picked them at random.)
If anything, Habs-mania is simply comparable to them and if viewed through the American prism, "normal". Only the sport is different: not even Detroit is passionate about its NHL club like Montrealers are.
Other reputed good sports cities in Canada like Edmonton (Oilers, Eskimos) and Regina (Saskatchewan Roughriders) once again would be average or even slightly below average in their level of interest and passion in the States.
I guess Canada overall just isn't a country that's very into spectator sports.
We often struggle to find cultural differences between Canada and the U.S. Well there is one for you right there.
Toronto is a younger, less cleaned up, but slightly edgier, version of Chicago in terms of urban development. I find there is still something Great Lakes-ish about both cities, as they don't feel east or west coast to me. Both feel slightly more down to earth and less aggressive. In terms of population and neighborhoods, Toronto feels more like Queens, NY - more of a multicultural emphasis with some grit. There is also something milder, reserved, or functional about Toronto that doesn't feel typical American to me. Maybe this is were Minneapolis comes in.
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