The Niagara Falls region hopes to recover from COVID-19 with Canadian tourists’ help. Will it work?
Text by James Dunne; Photos by Evan Mitsui
July 1, 2020
In a normal year, tourists to Ontario’s Niagara region would spend about $2.4 billion at the area’s close to 3,000 businesses.
But 2020 isn’t normal.
“Our businesses suffered revenue losses of 95 per cent,” Janice Thomson, CEO of Niagara Falls Tourism, said of the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s heartbreaking, because it impacted the lives of so many.”
Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati told CBC News the pandemic has cost about 98 per cent of the 40,000 people who work in Niagara’s tourism sector their jobs at area businesses such as hotels, the Fallsview Casino, the campy attractions on Clifton Hill and more.
The concentration of tourism jobs relative to total jobs in the Niagara region is 1.7 times that of Canada, according to Niagara Economic Development, a nonprofit organization focused on growing business in the region. The area boasts more than 1,200 full-service restaurants and 300 places to stay.
While Americans and other international visitors historically account for a third of business, travel restrictions and border closures have changed all that.
The region hopes Canada Day will spark a tourism comeback among Canadians, and Niagara Falls Tourism is hoping to lure them with a pandemic-inspired promise: “safe to play and safe to stay.”
CBC News talked to several businesses about how they hope to recover from COVID-19.
Parks and natural wonders
Niagara Falls, Canada’s most-popular natural attraction, welcomes 12 million tourists a year while another two million people visit the Niagara region, which is well known for its orchards, wineries, hiking trails and scenic vistas.
The Niagara Parks Commission maintains most of the region’s natural areas and heritage sites, as well as many of its services. It also operates attractions, golf courses and restaurants.
The commission doesn’t receive government funding and relies on visitors to survive. Last year, it hit a revenue high of $127.3 million.
The impact of COVID-19 has been dramatic, said CEO David Adames.
The months of April, May and June brought the commission $5.6 million in profit in 2019.
But for the same three months in 2020, Adames forecasts a loss of $7.6 million on account of the lockdowns that have kept people confined to their homes during the pandemic.
The commission is using a line of credit to pay bills. “It will take us a couple of years to recover,” Adames said.
At summer’s peak in 2019 it had 1,800 workers, this year, it’ll be just under 900, with most lost positions being student jobs.
All parks staff will be required to wear masks, as will guests visiting attractions.
Visitors’ hands will be sprayed with sanitizer, and the parks commission will reduced the capacity at its sites to ensure physical distancing.
At the Journey Behind the Falls attraction, which allows people to view the falls from a series of observation decks and tunnels at the foot of and behind the falls, a thermal camera has been installed to scan visitors’ temperatures before entry. Those with high readings will be stopped and interviewed.
Adames says the measures are “things that people will want to see and expect to see.” He hopes they’ll keep people safe and make them feel at ease so they stay and spend.