Printed from the Review
Even good news is bad for tourism
Daytrips still down dramatically from peak
Even the good news is bad for tourism in Niagara Falls.
A recent report shows that in August, the number of overnight trips from the U.S. to Ontario exceeded the number of daytrips. It might sound like good news, but it’s actually more a way of putting a happy face on a sad situation.
“It’s the trend we want, but it’s in the wrong direction,” said Niagara Falls Tourism executive director Anna Pierce.
Pierce said it isn’t that the number of overnight visitors has climbed back to the levels tourism operators want to see – it’s that the number of daytrippers has fallen so drastically in the past year.
“We need the daytrips to go back to the level they were and the overnights trip to exceed those,” she said. “Then, we’d be in great, great shape.”
Daytrippers from the near-U.S. markets of Western New York and Pennsylvania had been the bread and butter of the local tourism industry for decades.
It didn’t necessarily fill hotel rooms, but American daytrippers shopped, took in attractions and spent money throughout the day while they were here.
The daytrippers have fallen off in huge numbers since the SARS crisis in 2003, with a long list of reasons – the exchange rate, confusion about passports, frustration with wait times at the border, rising gas prices and the war in Iraq – to blame.
But American daytrippers spend more than Canadian ones, say insiders, meaning the number of Canadian visitors has to increase dramatically to recoup lost revenue.
To make up the shortfall, Niagara Falls Tourism has gone further afield in the U.S., looking at cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia for potential visitors.
Residents in those cities, Pierce said, tend to have higher incomes, more freedom to travel and aren’t put off by confusion at the border because many already have passports.
The plan, she said, appears to be working. Compared to other parts of Ontario, Niagara Falls didn’t fare too badly when all was said and done.
“August was not too bad. We were up half a point in August over last year,” Pierce said.
“All in all, we were down .1 or .2 per cent, so we didn’t fare too badly thanks to a lot of concerted efforts from a lot of people.”
Total U.S. traffic was down 16.4 per cent in the first half of 2007, although overseas visitors showed a .3 per cent increase, “so that’s pretty stable,” Pierce said.
Debbie Graham, director of attractions for the Niagara Clifton Group, said the company – which includes attractions such as Brick City, The Fun House, The Haunted House, Bronto’s Adventure Playland and Mystery Maze as well as the Travelodge and Thriftlodge on Clifton Hill – had a “decent year,” considering the number of obstacles the industry has to overcome.
“Our numbers came back pretty good,” said Graham.
She said the attractions side of the business doesn’t really do much to attract people to the city, but the hotel side does.
“We concentrate on the people already in the city,” she said.
Guillermo Palomo, manager of accommodations for the Travelodge and Thriftlodge, said the hotels were busy with Canadian tourists this summer, many from eastern Ontario and Quebec as well as a good number of Americans.
“Definitely, the number of Americans is dropping,” said Palomo. “A lot of Canadians. The number of people from Quebec is up. Europe is up. However, Clifton Hill is Clifton Hill so we see a lot of American plates.”
Madelena Phillips, marketing manager for Ripley’s Niagara, agrees.
She said the company took a look at the trends in visitors to Niagara Falls and took marketing in a different direction this year. “We did really well,” Phillips said. “We really understood the market we had to target. Most of our marketing goes to the domestic market, so all in all we did well.”
Back at the Thriftlodge, Palomo said he came away from the season with a more positive feeling than when it started.
“If you had asked me at the beginning of the year, I would have said ‘hmmm, I’m not sure,’” Palomo said. “I’m happily surprised at how well we did.
“But we can always do better.”
jpellegrini@nfreview.com
TOURISM BY THE NUBMERS
In August, the total number of international border crossings to Ontario (from the U.S. and abroad) fell 5.3 per cent, to slightly less than 2.3 million people. That works out to about 130,000 fewer international visitors than last year.
The total number of trips from the U.S. to Ontario fell by 5.4 per cent, and same-day travel tumbled 13.2 per cent. The overseas market also saw a decline of 4.5 per cent over August, 2006.
Overnight trips climbed 3 per cent, marking the first time the number of overnight trips from the U.S. to Ontario exceeded the number of day trips.
Travel by Ontario residents to the U.S. increased by 11 per cent in August, while travel overseas increased by 6.4 per cent over 2006.
As of the end of August, international border crossings to Ontario were down by 12.9 per cent, compared to the same period last year.
For the period of January – August, 2007, nearly 85 per cent of the decline in U.S. visitors came from the same-day travel market.
In August, 239,034 overseas visited Ontario, a drop of 4.7 per cent. In the first eight months of the year, 1,247,700 travelled to Ontario, a decline of .7 per cent. The number of visitors from Germany (15,169), Japan (11,228) and France (9,887) fell by a combined 52.1 per cent over 2006 – a decline of 9.5 per cent, 17.5 per cent and 25.1 per cent, respectively.
The number of U.K. visitors rose. The 55,599 Brits who travelled to Ontario in August represented a 2.9 per cent increase over the previous year. Visitors from Mexico, South Korea, China, Brazil, Italy Australia also travelled to Ontario in greater numbers in the first eight months of the year.
Sources: The Ontario Ministry of Tourism; Statistics Canada
Copyright © 2007 Niagara Falls Review
© 2007 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Niagara Falls Review acticles reprinted with permission by the authority of Joe Wallace, City Editor of the Niagara Falls Review.
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