ShareThisAt the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, you can see shrunken heads, a portrait carved in tree fungus, and a Statue of Liberty model made with more than 100,000 matchsticks.
One thing you don't see much of any more is American tourists.
"Back in 1999 and 2000, we had a wonderful rubber-tire market, wonderful U.S. visitation," said Tim Parker, general manager of Niagara Falls attractions for Jim Pattison Group, which owns Ripley's.
Tourists from the United States used to account for up to 70 percent of Parker's visitors. That's dropped to less than one-third.
Visits to see wax figures and oddities isn't the only tourism market that has experienced a decline. According to numbers released by Statistics Canada last week, U.S. traffic across the border has plummeted in recent years.
Since 2001, the number of day trips that Americans have taken to Canada has decreased by almost 70 percent.
When it comes to Canadians' tourism choices, travel to the United States has lost some of its appeal, too. In April, 13 percent fewer Canadians crossed the border compared with last year. By contrast, Canadian travel to other countries overseas increased 6 percent.
And it could get worse. As of June 1, travelers are required to show a passport or secure document to cross the border -- including American citizens, less than a third of who have a passport.
"It's a huge disincentive," said Robin Ritchie, a marketing professor at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business. "I don't think we've even begun to see the effects of that. We can anticipate further downward pressure on U.S. travel to Canada."
The impact is already evident across Canada.
In Victoria, British Columbia -- a big draw for Americans thanks to ferries like the Clipper and the Coho that provide a direct link to Washington State -- there's "no question" that American visits have dropped over the past few years, said Ken Kelly, the general manager of the Downtown Victoria Business Association.
"People are looking at their own 'stay-cations'," Kelly said. "I just came out of a meeting where people were discussing how to attract people to this city of ours. We want to make this destination, Victoria, more appealing."
Aside from passport regulations, security has tightened. The number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection guards stationed along the Canadian border has gone up nearly 80 per cent since 2000.
The 9/11 attacks had a huge impact on the American psyche, according to Ritchie, who said this has had an effect on their travel decisions. "I think Americans felt less safe, more inclined to stay at home," he said.
At Ripley's, Parker has been feeling the pinch, and he's doing his best to bring customers back. A combo ticket for three of his local attractions used to cost $30, and he's chopped the price of admission to $25.
"In tough times, you've got to turn up the heat," Parker said. "We gave you bread before, now we're going to give you bread and butter."
It's clear Parker knows on which side his bread is buttered. Even with the drop, Americans remain the biggest market for tourism in Canada. In April alone close to 2 million people came here from the United States -- almost five times the number of visitors from all other countries combined.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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