The Canadian Tourism Roundtable has made yet another call to action for the federal government to issue a comprehensive reopening plan - this time for the sake of local businesses in major tourist centre Niagara Falls. It’s one of the biggest attractions on the continent and lies on the very - closed - border with the United States.
In the Niagara region, the roundtable informed a news conference in the bordertown on Monday, tourism employs around 40,000 people. Further, 80 per cent of their tourism comes in only 20 per cent of the year: JUL through Labour Day.
Last weekend marked both Canada Day and the 04JUL weekend, yet Canadians were unable to plan concrete travel. And no Americans at all were able to even walk across the border at the Falls to Canada.
The Roundtable, a coalition of tourism and travel industry leaders, specifically pointed out the discrepancy between the American Maid of the Mist operating at full capacity in New York - while the Canadian Niagara City Cruises suffers operating at only 25 per cent capacity.
“Niagara Falls and the surrounding region relies heavily on American tourists every year,” said Janice Thomson, president and CEO of Niagara Falls Tourism. “We don’t see Americans as international visitors; they’re our neighbours and friends - and together, we operate as a seamless community. Since the pandemic that wonderful balance has been threatened. While American travellers don’t make up the majority of our visitors, they provide the vast majority of revenues to our businesses. We are at a point in time where we should be encouraging Canadians and other fully vaccinated individuals to start exploring our country again this summer.”
Like previous calls to action, the Roundtable asks the federal government to take the recommendations of their own appointed COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel and publish a reopening plan, particularly for vaccinated tourists visiting Canada.
“Families in our community rely on tourism and hospitality to put food on the table. Many of these families have been out of work for more than 15 months,” said Jim Diodati, mayor of Niagara Falls, who added his voice to the Roundtable’s. “It is not just a priority for our sector, but a dire situation for Canadian border cities that a plan be put in place, that relies on science, to open the border, safely, now.”
