Passport plan deters visitors to Niagara
While the debate over requiring passports to cross the U.S.-Canada border continues, confused potential tourists stay away
Leaders of the tourism and hospitality industry in the Buffalo-Niagara region say that the debate over a passport mandate scheduled to take effect next year has confused visitors to the region, already hurting this year’s tourist season. Some of them argue that the mandate to carry a passport to cross into the United States from Canada could keep more American tourists on the U.S. side in the short term, but even these industry insiders worry it could ultimately hurt the region as a whole. “There’s confusion on a daily basis, and it has been that way and it drives you crazy,” said John Percy, president and CEO of Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. “I think it’s going to affect the destination overall, just because I don’t think people sometimes realize there’s a Niagara Falls, N.Y., and a Niagara Falls, Canada. They’ll choose another vacation destination that doesn’t have a passport issue.”
DHS secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to visit the Peace Bridge in Buffalo this morning. Representative Louise Slaughter, chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, who invited Chertoff to Buffalo, has called for a full economic impact study of border areas to be done before the new requirements take effect. “Homeland Security’s ambitious rush ahead with its passport requirement is not grounded in reality,” Slaughter said last week.
The Buffalo News’s Gail Franklin and Denise Jewell report that local lawmakers and business owners concur, but say a lot of damage already has been done. Niagara Falls, Ontario mayor Ted Salci said his city last year saw 42 percent fewer day-trippers — mostly Americans who drive over the border — than the previous year. “It doesn’t seem to be any better at this stage,” he said of the current season. “Those are the lowest figures we’ve had since we started recording the data back in the ’60s.”
The Ontario Ministry of Tourism has also measured a drop in people crossing the border from the United States. Since January, the number of people who have crossed from the United States into Ontario has decreased by 18.1 percent compared with the same period last year.
