Daily Archive for May 29th, 2008

Niagara Falls Tourism Authority Spring Getaways

The Falls Avenue Newsletter is now up to issue 18 (I think I missed a few issue). Even though the email refers to Falls Avenue and NiagaraFallsHotels.com, the subject used the term Niagara Falls Tourism Authority. These are all titles/names/phrases that Canadian Niagara Hotels uses. However, they should probably pick one and stick to it. Too many names is confusing.

The newsletter has links to a few different package plans they are offering.

To subscribe, visit the newsletter page and click on any of the past issues. On the page that appears, enter enter your address in the necessary field.

Niagara’s Fury already a hit online – at least in Azerbaijan

From the Niagara Falls Review:

Ruslan Nuryiev has never been to Niagara Falls. So how did a 24-year-old economist living in Baku, Azerbaijan come to create the Facebook fan site for Niagara’s Fury?

Why would someone who lives 9,100 kilometres away from the thundering waterfall be interested in creating a fan site dedicated to it on a social networking site?…

With that exchange completed, the obvious question was: With a viral marketing campaign all over the place for the $7-million attraction, why didn’t the public relations machine drive this Facebook campaign?

It’s coming, said Joel Noden, executive director of revenue operations and business at the Niagara Parks Commission.

Canada to U.S. — Passport or Enhanced License?

Regular visitor Lisa from Rochester sent me this story from a local TV station (WHAM channel 13 in Rochester):

By next summer, drivers will need a passport or an enhanced driver license to return to the United States from Canada.

An enhanced license will look similar to the one you already have with an American flag on the front.

A radio frequency chip inside will also allow border guards access to important extra information the driver provided to the DMV to prove your citizenship.

It’s as good as a passport for re-entering the US from Canada, Mexico, The Caribbean, or Bermuda.

Fury-ous animator

From the Niagara Falls Review:

He started with a simulation film made almost entirely from “stuff” found at a hardware store.

He’s now part of an accomplished animation company giving life to large-format attractions using top-of-the-line computer technology and 360-degree digital cameras.

Yas Takata and his California-based computer graphics imaging employer Blur Studio have been in town as part of a creative team putting the finishing touches on Niagara’s Fury, which could open as early as Friday pending final inspections.

‘I may not have done this if somebody had told me how tough this would be to sell to the locals’

From the Niagara Falls Review:

It was supposed to be a five-year plan to prove the doubters wrong.

Five years to show that big-time theatre couldn’t just survive in Niagara Falls, but thrive.

Alas, Silver Mist Productions was off the mark.

It only took two years.

“Right now, we’re three years ahead of schedule,” says a satisfied Linus Hand as he sits down for lunch at a local eatery.

The company’s co-founder has earned a smile or two by now, after the pessimistic jeering that greeted his company.

Not from the tourism industry, he clarifies. From the locals. People who greet every promise in this city with a shrug.