Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Monday marked a big day for international travel as the land border between the United States and Canada is now fully open to both fully vaccinated U.S. and Canadian tourists.
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Local officials gathered at Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House on Monday to talk about the impact of the border re-opening for Canadian travelers to Erie County and the surrounding areas of Western New York.
"We are here on, what is, a great day - it took longer than it should have - to have our Canadian friends and neighbors, and often family members, to be able to come across the border and enjoy our great community that we have here in Erie County," said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Monday. "We know that Canadians shop at our stores, go to our football games, go to the hockey games, when it's ski season they come down and they ski at Kissing Bridge and Holiday Valley. It has been a tremendous loss for our community to not be able to have that cross-border traffic so that Canadians can enjoy our great community, and of course Americans can enjoy the great community that is just across the border in Southern Ontario."
President and CEO of Visit Buffalo Niagara, Patrick Kaler says there has been a great deal of advocacy for the re-opening of the U.S.-Canadian border, with the utmost priority being the healthy and safety of Canadian visitors, Erie County residents and the area's hospitality industries.
"Visit Buffalo Niagara's advocacy throughout the last 20 months has been through a partnership with the U.S. Travel Association and Brand USA, but an enormous thanks truly has to go to [U.S. Representative for New York's 26th congressional district] Brian Higgins," Kaler said. "He has been truly a steadfast advocate for the opening of the Canadian border."
"In 2019, 21 million Canadians traveled to the United States and spent $21 billion dollars," Brian Higgins said of the economic impact of the border re-opening on Monday. "Patrick Kaler also provided information from Erie County, the economic impact: $1 billion annually. Every aspect of our life quality and our economies are deeply integrated between the United States and Canada. We are friends, we are trading partners."
While there have been a very limited number of Canadian travelers to the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down cross-border travel, Kaler estimates the number of average travelers to the United States may not return to normal for another couple of years. However, those numbers may be altered quite a bit for the Western New York region.
"The U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics estimates that a return to the 2019 levels of Canadian travelers into the United States probably won't return until 2023, 2024. However, because of our proximity to Canada and the large number of people in Southern Ontario and the [Greater Toronto Area], we feel that we have a better opportunity to recover a little bit faster," Kaler said. "The re-opening of the border to land travel from Canada presents the tourism sector with the chance to show our appreciation, once again, for Canadian visitors, and to bring them up to date and remind them of the exciting things that there are to see and do in Buffalo."
Kaler also says Visit Buffalo Niagara will be sharing a new message to Canadian travelers inviting them to visit, what he calls Buffalo, "the other New York city."
"If you haven't been to Buffalo lately, you haven't been to Buffalo."
Kaler does say that, though, it is too soon to evaluate the potential economic impact of the border re-opening until evaluations are made of the traffic coming across the border. Those studies will likely not be finished until after the holidays.
"To our friends in Canada, we want to remind them you are our friends. You are more than welcome here. We want you to come here, we want to see you again," said Poloncarz. "I'm very grateful we finally reached this day - took a lot longer than we hoped to - but it is an example of what we can do when we work together to try and create a better community for all.
"When we think about a better community for all in Erie County, it's not just thinking of Erie County itself, it's Western New York and our friends in Southern Ontario. We share so much together, and it's about time that we are finally able to do that in person."
You can listen to the entire press conference below:
