Niagara tourism rebounds

Now that summer’s officially over, the Niagara tourist industry is doing some number crunching and the results are encouraging. As Lauran Sabourin tells us, it looks like American tourists are starting to come back across the border.

In Niagara Falls, tourists are lining the wall at Table Rock and travellers are lining up on the Rainbow Bridge.

Tourist: “First time here for all of us.”

They say this year the Americans are showing signs of coming back to Niagara Falls.

Amy Bignucolo from the Rodeway Inn Fallsview is happy it’s American $$$ with the loonie valued below the U.S. buck: “Yes, you’re seeing more American dollars in the till. They’re coming back and that’s a good thing.”

That’s because the average American spends more than $500 on each trip. Over the past decade, the passport rule really took a bite out of U.S. tourism. Americans didn’t want to spend a hundred dollars on a passport just to visit Niagara Falls.

Tourist: “We got ours three months ago. Yeah, for the trip.”

The numbers are surprising giving the Canadian Tourism Commission gave up on the american tourist this year. the CTC says it wasn’t getting enough bang for its buck. That’s when local stakeholders in Niagara Falls stepped up.

The tourist industry focused on some specific U.S. markets in an effort to bring American tourists back. And it seems to be working.

Tourists: “We definitely wanted to see the falls.” “I also came to compare it to Victoria Falls, when I saw it in Africa three years ago.”

“Everybody talks about how beautiful it is on this side. We had to go see it.”

Niagara Falls relies heavily on tourists who drive across the international bridges. And this year, we’ve seen plates from as far away as Utah, Arizona and Alaska.