Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The numbers are slowly getting better when it comes to local U.S. - Canada border crossings, but they're still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels.
Visit Buffalo Niagara's Patrick Kaler says in 2019, cross border traffic was about 5.1 million crossings for the year. For 2021. it was a little over 980,000. "We are starting to see some improvements, but it's still very slow," says Kaler.
Kaler believes there's one big reason for it. "A lot of it has to do with the regulations on the Canadian side of the border," says Kaler, referring to the vaccination proof and ArriveCAN app usage requirements. He says there was a big bump in relation to the drop off from 2019 when the regulations were lessened. "We were hopeful that things were going to continue to progress a little bit more in our favor," notes Kaler. He says it's frustrating because 35 to 45 percent of overall visits to Erie County come from Canadians.
Kaler says Visit Buffalo Niagara is trying to convince Canada to loosen border crossing restrictions. "Visit Buffalo Niagara is a member of the US Travel Association, I sit on the board of directors. And we've been working very closely with the advocacy side of us travel to make sure that this is top of mind that that is a an area that we're working on," says Kaler. He adds Visit Buffalo Niagara is also sending the message Buffalo loves Canada. "We know that Canadians love to come to Buffalo. But you know with the restrictions, they're just not wanting to put themselves through that at this point," says Kaler.
Last week, Congressman Brian Higgins pointed out 70,000 fewer vehicles crossed the border at the Peace Bridge in May of 2022 compared to 2019.
