Travel and Leisure has ranked Niagara Falls as #5 when it comes to World's Most Visited Tourist Attractions. How far are we from Niagara Falls? Oh yeah, approximately 25 miles. It's not like this sort of rankling is something new - at least to Western New Yorkers, rather it is a periodic wake-up call... a Homer Simpson "D'oh!" moment that makes us try on our best marketing thinking caps (again). Up until now those thinking caps have looked more like dunce caps. Then again, as the Canadian side of The Falls has continually thrived, the American side has languished. Meaning that once a visitor ends up on the Canadian side of The Falls, a 1+ hour trip to Toronto probably looks a lot more appealing than a cross-border stopover to Buffalo.
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With 22,500,000 visitors to the falls each year, you would think that Buffalo could peal some of that traffic away. What is it going to take to get some of these visitors to take the 20+ mile drive? Chicken wings, a refurbished Statler or Hotel Lafayette, a killer destination restaurant, a booming Inner Harbor, the world's largest electric chair? I'm not being morbid - the electric chair was invented here, as was air conditioning, but I don't think the world's largest air conditioner would be as fascinating. Or will we have to settle for a faction of travelers passing around Buffalo as they head from our airport directly to The Falls?
Yesterday I met up with a guy who just relocated to Buffalo from NYC. He's kind of a hot shot in the hospitality development industry, and he wanted to know what the lay of the land was like here in Buffalo. We discussed all sorts of potential projects that would be good for this city - projects that would not only be exciting, but would also attract enough people to make them financially viable. Projects that we really haven't seen here yet. Being so close to Toronto and Niagara Falls, would the right idea, with the right kind of backing, be able to attract enough visitors to justify significant investment? 22,500,000 visitors to The Falls is a lot of people. As the Canadian side continues to invest in hotels and attractions, and the American side starts to awaken from its long slumber, those traffic counts will most likely escalate. At the same time, Toronto continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in North America. What will it take for Buffalo to begin to capitalize on the tourism success of our Canadian neighbors?
Precisely why I continue to feel the area would benefit tremendously from a metro line between downtown Buffalo and downtown Niagar Falls. From a tourist perspective they wouldnt have to drive between the two cities, could simply jump on a front and center metro station in the Falls and day trip into Buffalo. Its just easier as a tourist to jump on a rail line you know will get you where you want to be rather than driving, making wrong turn, etc. All within a quick walk of a Niagara Falls hotel. All about convenience and a real nice tourist connection I think could be made with a Niagara Falls - Buffalo spur. The Niagara Falls station should have a Buffalo information center in it and the Buffalo one a Niagara Falls info station, be mutually beneficial and collaborative tourist marketing efforts.
you beat me to it. a trolley connecting the two cities is long overdue.
for a lot of people, vacation means getting away not only from your job but your car, which is why some cities & villages with lush, intact, pre-automobile pedestrian realms become pricey tourist towns.
This is attraction #5 in the WORLD, not the nation or the state. We're talking about visitors from London and Tokyo, not just Binghamton and Cleveland.
When I used to work at the Rainbow Centre, we had tourists from all nations who had basically stumbled across the bridge on foot, or had arrived by tour bus from Toronto or NY. I'm sure many visitors had driven in from neighboring states, or rented a car at BNI or Pearson... but a large percentage of international travelers do NOT get around by car. They go where the tour bus takes them, or rely on local public transportation.
NF-ON has provided the Peoplemover to quickly and easily shuttle tourists to all the major Canadian-side attractions. The NFTA's service between NF and Buffalo is somewhat difficult and confusing even for us locals who know it's there.
Now that the NFTA has re-zoned travel across the area, it would be great to add more tourist-friendly service in NF and into Buffalo. The Peoplemover is a great example of overcoming the language and currency barriers for foreign tourists, and should be implemented on our side as well (at least on the major tourist lines between NF, downtown and the airport... if not system-wide). The NF bus station is a scary place indeed! And that's coming from a person who used it every day, I can only imagine what people from the other side of the planet thought of it.
Visitors to NF-ON are also quite agreeable to walking, Clifton Hill and Queen's Park are very pedestrian-friendly. For the brave souls who venture across the bridge however, the State Park is reasonably accessible, but downtown NF-NY is anything BUT inviting to people on foot. (For that matter, roads signs in the areas aren't much help to people in cars either)
The NF-Buffalo connection needs to stop limiting itself to attracting visitors from just Toronto and Rochester. When we make it easier for people from Berlin and Beijing, the day-trippers will feel the results just as easily.