Visitors to Niagara Falls have fewer options for fun than last year
Tourists in Niagara Falls want more to experience
NIAGARA FALLS — The tethered balloon on Rainbow Boulevard is grounded.
The doors to the family fun center in the old Wintergarden are locked.
The aerospace museum on Third Street has packed up its collection and is planning a move to Buffalo.
At a time when state and local officials are vigorously focused on developing the tourism economy in Niagara Falls, three family-oriented attractions within walking distance to Niagara Falls State Park permanently closed during the off-season.
Meanwhile, the Niagara Parks Commission on the Ontario side of the border has unveiled a $7 million multimedia ride designed to give visitors a virtual taste of the formation of the falls.
So why, as city and state officials pump millions of dollars into rebuilding Niagara Falls, is the number of U. S. tourist attractions growing smaller?
Eddie Friel, a visiting faculty member of Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, believes there are reasons to think positively about the future of Falls tourism despite its sluggish hospitality industry.
“The added-value experience is limited in Niagara Falls,” said Friel, the college’s tourism “expert-in-residence.”
The goal of tourism leaders, he said, is to create more meaningful attractions downtown that can draw big audiences — attractions that set the American side apart from the Canadian side — and to give “a real, genuine experience and first-class service.”
Discussions have been under way for more than a decade about an idea to build a world-class, interactive museum and welcome center near the state park that would give visitors a sense of place and introduce them to the region’s history and heritage.
“This is one of the places where people enter our state and come from other places,” said Mayor Paul A. Dyster. “This gives us an opportunity to put our best foot forward, and to tell our story in a competitive way as visitors are getting their first impressions about New York State.”
Planners hired to develop early concepts for the interactive museum talked about building a technology-laden center that would offer an alternative to Clifton Hill kitsch like wax museums and fun houses. They envisioned a state-of-the art building with an open central hall with screens of falling water that showcase the region’s history, a ride that would whisk visitors through a simulated landscape of Niagara Falls and an illuminated outdoor water feature that would be visible from the Canadian side.
Organizers have described an events park and a family-oriented hotel that would mimic the style of lodges in the country’s national parks.
While the plans are grand — estimates of the total project cost have been as high as $92 million — they have been slow to materialize.
The state’s economic development agency, USA Niagara Development Corp., has spearheaded recent efforts and completed a market study and design forums in 2004. A nonprofit organization, Niagara Experience Center Inc., was created in 2004, but little funding has been lined up for the project aside from a $3 million casino revenue allocation and a $10 million commitment to construction announced by former Gov. George E. Pataki.
Dyster, who served as Niagara Experience Center chairman before running for office last year, said the city plans to ask the state for as much as $25 million over the next several years from a fund designed to help revitalize upstate communities. That money would then be used to leverage private investment.
The idea, Dyster said, would be to guide visitors through the experience center to attractions throughout the Buffalo Niagara region, including the Albright- Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown.
“It’s designed to take this faucet of visitors at the falls and turn it on so that visitors flow over a larger area,” Dyster said. “That benefits the city, but it benefits all the surrounding communities as well.”
The reality is that some of those farther flung communities already are taking greater advantage of some of the millions of Falls tourists than the Falls itself.
While the city has lost three downtown attractions since the last summer season, the Niagara Wine Trail has continued to grow, the popularity of free concerts and festivals in the Village of Lewiston continues, and, last week, Buffalo officially celebrated the opening of its new Erie Canal Harbor.
Why are strong, more numerous tourist sites important?
They will get tourists to stay in the region longer — and ultimately spend more money outside Niagara Falls State Park.
That’s why downtown Falls development has been the focus of city and state officials for years.
But while the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel now offers gambling and entertainment for adults, attractions accessible to parents and children fall short of those on the Canadian side, where families can explore the Butterfly Conservatory, tour Ripley’s Believe It or Not or ride 175 feet above the falls in the SkyWheel.
Visitors on the American side of the falls have options, too. The Cave of the Winds, the Maid of the Mist, the Aquarium of Niagara and the Hard Rock Cafe all offer family-oriented activities in Niagara Falls.
U. S. visitors can take off in a helicopter from Main Street or visit the Gorge Discovery Center and nearby hiking trails.
In other areas of Niagara County, popular attractions include Old Fort Niagara and the Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours.
But tourists told The Buffalo News last month they want more.
Attractions within walking distance to the Niagara Falls State Park have come in fits and starts during the last decade, with grand proposals like a plan to build an underground aquarium failing to deliver.
Then after last summer’s tourist season, three family-oriented attractions shut down, with two closing with little notice.
When the Flight of Angels helium balloon ride opened in a lot behind the Hard Rock Cafe in 2001, it was one of the first tourist attractions to open in the city in a decade. It gave tourists a bird’s eye view of the falls, but failed to attract advertising that would have made the balloon more profitable.
The balloon closed permanently over the winter after its owners discovered costly repairs were needed to reopen this summer, an attorney for the owners has said. Attempts to secure a new balloon ride on the site have been unsuccessful.
Across the street, the Smokin’ Joe’s Family Fun Center opened with little fanfare in 2005 in the former Wintergarden on Rainbow Boulevard. It offered arcade games, an indoor playground and a batting cage, but was often closed on weekdays.
The owner of the Wintergarden, Joseph Anderson, closed the attraction in December because of the high utility costs of operating the building.
And a third attraction, the Niagara Aerospace Museum, packed up its collection earlier this year after its lease ended in the Seneca Office Building on Third Street. The museum officially announced plans to move to Buffalo last week.
Those losses have been disappointing to local officials.
“What do we have down in Niagara Falls? We have a couple Denny’s restaurants, you have a nice West Mall mini-golf course,” said Councilman Sam Fruscione. “But you don’t have enough attractions.”
Dyster, who has long been a champion of the Niagara Experience Center proposal, said the loss of the three attractions was independent from efforts to rebuild the tourist district.
“All three were up and running at one time without changing the equation in terms of downtown tourism. So in that sense, is this a critical loss? No,” Dyster said. “Do we want to lose attractions downtown? No, we don’t.”
State and city efforts have focused on rebuilding streets and sidewalks to encourage new development, operating the Conference Center Niagara Falls and encouraging upgrades to local hotels.
A grassroots initiative led by Councilman Charles Walker and State Parks employee Kevin Cottrell to build family activities around the region’s Underground Railroad history has also moved forward in recent months.
That rich heritage may be a way, Friel said, of helping distinguish the area from its Canadian counterpart.
“It’s this history that we need to learn how to showcase better than we have in the past,” Friel said. “These are unique features of the city and you need to be able to explore them.”
As the city builds back up, some believe, the failures of the city’s past could offer a chance to start fresh.
“Before you decide we’re going to put a up a balloon or put up a carnival, you really have to start to think about what we’re about,” said Bill Bradberry, former city administrator, who has served on the city’s Tourism Advisory Board. “It’s a blank tab. We can start over and really build this thing right in a way that really makes sense to the entire universe.”
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