Fallsview, a regular contributor to the Niagara Falls Blog, has provided me with his thoughts on the Niagara Falls tourism industry. Each day this week I will be posting another part, so since it is Tuesday, this is Part 2.
Who are we? Niagara Falls was once known as the Honeymoon Capital of the World, but even the Canadian version of ELLE Magazines top 10 Honeymoon travel destinations includes such places as Japan, Indonesia, India and South Africa, with no mention at all of the once proud Honeymoon Capital of the world. Who are we trying to entice here? Couples, families, newlyweds, soon to be married, foreigners, middle class America, the wealthy, the gamblers, the thrill seekers, the wine tasters. Marketing is key, but you still have to have a game plan and know who to deliver the product too. And you better deliver the product when they get here, or else their friends will be advised to not make the expensive treck to this location. Service is horrible in most of these places, and most are rip offs with ticked off minimum wage teenagers at the helm! Not smart at all!! Cost, Passports, Sars, Fuel, the high Dollar are all legitimate reasons for less Americans, yet you could find an argument for any one of these in popular destinations. SARS: the World Health Organization says that Sars originated in China’s southern province of Guangdong, before spreading to Hong Kong, where it was then carried to Vietnam, Singapore and Canada. Cases have later surfaced in other places including the United States, France, Britain, Taiwan and Germany.EFFECT ON HONG KONG: The total tourism expenditure associated to inbound tourism reached HK$117.3 billion in 2006. Overall visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in 2006 increased by 8.1% to 25.25 million, which was lower than what the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) had expected. The HKTB had initial expectations of 27 million visitor arrivals. Visitor arrivals from Mainland China exceeded 13.5 million. Arrivals in December 2006 exceeded 2.4 million, setting an outright record for a single month.
COST: Eight of the ten costliest cities worldwide to visit are located in Europe, which is also a country on the top of everyone’s wish list to visit. Oslo topped the list of the most expensive, followed by Paris, Copenhagen, Denmark and London. Two Japanese cities broke into the top ten: Tokyo, which claimed the top spot in 2005 and came in second last year at fifth and Osaka Kobe at sixth. Only three Canadian cities were in the top 50, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, with Niagara Falls nowhere near the top 100. Niagara Falls also has to start believing that they are as worthy as any of these places to be a world class, want to see destination. The rubber tire market is dwindling, yet there are still 850 million travelers spending over a trillion of there hard earned dollars in more expensive colder destinations throughout the planet. I think I would want a piece of that pie!
PASSPORTS: This is probably the biggest obstacle to overcome, but if you consider the world today, and that you pretty much need a passport to travel anywhere in the world today, it was bound to happen eventually. Market your city as a must see, and those with passports will make there way here.
Other parts in the series: