15-05-2025
Local tourism leaders plan for 'unpredictable' summer season
With the official start of the 2025 tourism season just weeks away, local industry leaders and city officials are keeping a wary eye on what the summer season will hold for the Cataract City.
A Wednesday afternoon summit with Mayor Robert Restaino, Destination Niagara USA President & CEO John Percy and members of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association seemed to yield equal measures of concern and confidence.
'We've seen some reduction in (local) cross-border traffic,' Restaino said. 'We met to make sure our (local tourism) industry is nimble enough to react to it.'
But the mayor cautioned that local governments 'have very little ability to impact' tourism.
The industry has been hit by headwinds created by dramatic changes in the United States' policies on immigration, travel and tariffs. In particular, a trade war and suggestions by President Donald Trump that the U.S. should simply annex Canada as a 51st state have plunged the relationship between the two neighbors into a deep freeze.
Mass deportations and other aggressive law enforcement actions against immigrants have also led many nations to issue advisories cautioning against travel to the U.S.
Frank Strangio, whose family operates multiple hotel properties in the Falls, said his sites have seen lower occupancy rates in the run-up to the Memorial Day kick-off of the tourist season. He said booking projections suggest those occupancy declines could continue into the summer, fueled by an absence of both Canadian and international travelers.
'We're seeing a downturn in international (travelers),' Strangio said. 'I don't know if maybe they don't feel welcome here. But that is the wrong message. Come and stay. That's what makes America great. We want to see people from all over the world.'
Restaino told the association members that city officials are 'exploring doing something with the occupancy tax. The 6% surcharge on what travelers pay for hotel and motel rooms is used to fund tourism-related expenses, including the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's trolley service and the Discover Niagara Shuttle.
The mayor said he hoped a 'holiday' on the occupancy tax collections might make room rates more affordable.
'We're not looking at a permanent reduction,' Restaino said. 'We're trying to protect the trolley and the shuttle (both services receive 1% of the occupancy tax revenues).'
Strangio said he believes that with the uncertainty of the upcoming tourist season, the region's tourism promotion efforts shouldn't be put at risk. He advocated for continued support for local marketing efforts.
'We need to keep spending on marketing,' Strangio said. 'When we spend less, we make less.'
Percy, a long-time tourism industry leader, agreed with Strangio and said Destination Niagara USA is looking to remain aggressive in its advertising and promotions. He said his agency was 'paying attention and has its finger on the pulse' of the decline in Canadian and international travel to the Falls.
But he also said Niagara USA was ready to 'pivot' its message to a 'domestic audience of travelers' who live from 3 to 5 hours from the Falls.
'We've always fared well (in tough economies) and we feel we will again this time,' Percy said. 'We don't pull back. We forge ahead.'
