Don't let SARS scare scuttle Toronto shopping
Michael J. Knell, Canadian correspondent -- Furniture Today, May 19, 2003
We're having a little furniture show here in Toronto on the weekend of June 7–9, and I want to encourage you to attend. It's not going to be the grandest event ever held in our industry, but the 50 or so participating manufacturers are going to do everything they can to ensure it's a worthwhile experience for you and a profitable one for your store.
And you are in little danger, if any at all, of picking up a fatal disease. Toronto has been a SARS hot spot since the beginning of April and has been the subject of international media scrutiny. While it may not be advisable to travel to China and other places in the Far East, traveling to Toronto is no more dangerous than visiting any other big city anywhere in North America.
This isn't to say the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome hasn't been serious. Twenty-three people have died in the Toronto area and that's 23 people too many. But the facts are clear and simple. Every case of probable and suspected SARS in Toronto can be directly linked to what the experts call the index case. That case involved a Chinese-Canadian family who brought the disease home with them after visiting relatives in Hong Kong. Since then, SARS has not broken out of the health care system into the community at large.
Leading voices in the health care and medical community, including the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, have commended their colleagues in Toronto for doing everything right to contain the disease. There has NOT been a single case of community spread of SARS in Toronto.
The efforts of front-line health care workers in Toronto have been heroic. And that's why it's perfectly safe to come here.
So don't skip the market because you're afraid of catching a bug. Come to Toronto because you're afraid to miss an opportunity to find great new product that will help you attract a hesitant and reluctant consumer into your store in what is already shaping up to be a lackluster and uninspired second half.
After the World Health Organization put its foot in its mouth and issued its travel advisory on Toronto, I received a few phone calls from folks in the industry in the United States and other parts of Canada. I'll say the same thing to you I said to them: There's no reason NOT to come to Toronto. Come to the market, take in a Blue Jays game, dine in one of our terrific restaurants, and maybe take a trip up the CN Tower.
You'll be glad you did.
If you want more information about the Toronto show, get in touch with David Hanna at the Ontario Furniture Manufacturers Assn. He'll be glad to chat with you. His telephone number is (905) 677-6561 and his e-mail address is dhanna@ofma.ca.
