From the Niagara Falls Review:
Terrorism kills tourism.
But it doesn’t have to, New York State congresswoman Louise Slaughter said in response to Canada’s secretary of state for small business and tourism assertion that the country’s tourism woes are a direct result of the tight border.
Tourism industry insiders have to continue to accentuate the positive, Slaughter said at the third annual Binational Tourism Summit, hosted by the Binational Tourism Alliance at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo Thursday and Friday.
“Don’t put (stories about delays and problems at the border) on your websites,” she said during her noon-hour speech Friday. “We have seen more damage than we need to and it’s absolutely needless.”
Slaughter acknowledged most of the problems begin with her own government.
“I have told (Homeland Security Secretary) Michael Chertoff a number of times that we have a border problem, but not this border,” she said. “As long as you can walk across the border in the Adirondacks … I think you’d have to be pretty simple to use the bridge.”
During a closed-door meeting with the media prior to her speech, Slaughter said she wants people in the binational Niagara region - and in all border locations in the U.S. and Canada - to ignore Chertoff.
“He can’t do a thing in the world until 2009,” she said, adding those on the inside are simply waiting for a change of power to occur to kick Chertoff from his post.
“He has made it clear he does not trust the Canadians … and he has tried to do his best to convince people Buffalo, N.Y., is the most dangerous place in the western hemisphere.”
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