From the Niagara Falls Review:
It used to be a video store, but “Blockbuster” is now the mantra of the tourism industry in Niagara and the province of Ontario.
Get used to it.
Blockbuster. Blockbuster. Blockbuster.
At some point, the word became the catch phrase for the kind of events Ontario’s tourism industry wants to hang its hat on.
It crept into the lexicon in 2010 when Celebrate Ontario, a provincially funded agency, created a program to support “blockbuster events” or one-time events “of a size and scope sufficient to draw visitors to Ontario’s communities.”
In the past two years, “blockbuster” is the phrase everyone from Ontario Tourism Minister Michael Chan to Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and Niagara Parks Commission chairwoman Janice Thomson has borrowed to set their sights on hosting larger-than-life events.
Judging by some events this year and others that are on the calendar, both Niagara and Queen’s Park are on the same page.