Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The United States is lifting COVID-19 vaccination restrictions to enter the nation, fully opening the border after more than three years.
With the long-awaited move, tourism advocates on both sides of the border are hoping for a quick return to normal travel patterns.
"It's great news for all of us in the industry, especially here," John Percy of Destination Niagara tells WBEN, considering the amount of international travel the region relies upon economically. He says during the pandemic, the region relied on travelers from across the US. "We loved our domestic customers, because they kept us alive the last couple of years, because they weren't really traveling abroad. There was such pent up demand and the thing called revenge travel, the revenge against the pandemic, and wanted to get out and explore," explains Percy. He says now everything's shifting back to some normalcy, even domestic customers or US residents are starting to travel abroad. "We're going to replace it with Canadians able to travel and international able to travel without any restrictions and mandates in place," says Percy.
Percy says now he'd like the US to focus on making international travel easier, particularly visas. "A worry is that the visa wait times in India can be upwards of six months to two years, and so those those encumbered really become an obstacle for our traveling international friends," says Percy. He says the US Travel Association lobbies the US government to lower those restrictions, beef up staffing and countries that require visas so as many barriers and restrictions can be eliminated so more people can easily travel. "There still has to be visa wait times, there still have to be interview processes, all that but let's reduce that time from six months to six weeks. That's a more normal pattern, like we used to have in the past," urges Percy.
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The lifting of COVID vaccination restrictions to enter the US should benefit Canadian border communities like Fort Erie. Mayor Wayne Redekop says Canada has not required proof of COVID vaccination for some time. "This should increase the number of individuals who are crossing the border, and for any community that relies on tourism or has a history of welcoming our neighbors from the south, that is welcome news," says Redekop.
Redekop says the US' lifting of COVID vaccination requirement will help his community's hospitality industry. "The restaurants, as you know, in Fort Erie that, in the past have been able to count on their American customers to come over, spend some time in Fort Erie, spend some money here in various locations, and it should also be good for places like the race track, our beaches, any of the tourism locations that we have in Fort Erie," adds Redekop.
Redekop says he has his own border concerns. "I think there's been a lot of focus on the border in recent days, simply because of the number of unauthorized people crossing both ways into Canada, out of Canada into the US. So that's a challenge that both countries are going to have to work on in terms of immigration," says Redekop. He notes Canada has one border to monitor while the US has two, "both of which are long, and both of which have a lot of people crossing legally and unfortunately, illegally."