Windsor: What else can go wrong?
Smoking law, passport confusion cited for dramatic drop in American visitors
Jul. 25, 2006. 07:09 AM
NAOMI CARNIOL
STAFF REPORTER
WINDSOR—Things haven't been easy in Windsor lately.
Rising gas prices, a high exchange rate, Ontario's smoking ban and confusion about travel documents are discouraging Americans from visiting Canadian cities. Windsor, with Canada's busiest border crossing, has been hit especially hard.
In the decade Gordon Orr has worked at the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Windsor, Essex County and Pelee Island, he has never seen the area facing more challenges at once than it is now. "These are things we don't have control over," the bureau's managing director says.
Casino Windsor recently laid off more than 300 employees, citing a drop in attendance. "Eighty per cent of our customers are American," says casino spokesperson Holly Ward.
While recent trends like rising gas prices play a role, the decrease in visitors is still being linked to the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
"I don't think our business will ever be at what it was before Sept. 11," Ward says. "That was just an event on a scale we've never seen before."
In 1999-2000, about 8 million U.S. visitors came to Windsor. In 2004, the number was just over 4 million. Fewer American visitors means fewer dollars for Windsor's restaurants and hotels, says Linda Smith, president of the chamber of commerce.
It's been a tough five years for the tourism industry, Orr says. "After each one of the major issues that came up after 9/11, the industry was asking ourselves, what next? What could possibly be next?"
The province-wide smoking ban enacted in late May didn't help. Windsor's three main tourist attractions — the casino, the bingo halls and the Slots at Windsor Raceway — have seen numbers decrease due to several factors, including the smoking ban, Orr says.
"We're in a unique situation," Smith says. "Smoking is still allowed in Michigan everywhere."
Windsor considers itself Bingo City, says John Fairley, CBC Bingo's vice-president of marketing.
"There are more sessions of bingo played in Windsor than anywhere in Canada."
Windsor's bingo halls raised $15 million last year. That helped support 600 local charities.
Since the smoking ban, attendance has dropped between 5 and 13 per cent at various bingo halls, Fairley says. One hall closed this month.
The bingo industry is trying to adapt to the smoke-free landscape. There are now intermissions between games. "We don't call it a smoking break," Fairley says.
"But in 25 years, there never was one before."
Outside, smokers can sit on newly installed patio furniture and hear what's happening in the bingo hall thanks to a new speaker system.
The city is meeting with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. to look into bringing electronic bingo to Windsor, Mayor Eddie Francis says. And it's studying the impact of the smoking ban on businesses.
On top of the smoking ban, confusion over passport requirements is keeping U.S. visitors away, the mayor says.
The U.S. government's Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will require all people coming to the U.S, including Americans, to have a passport or similarly secure document by Jan. 1, 2008.
The passport won't necessarily increase security, but it will discourage spontaneous travellers from crossing the border, Francis says.
Some Americans mistakenly believe they need a passport now to visit Canada, Francis says.
Windsor and the province will launch a $125,000 advertising campaign next week to try and clear up the confusion. "The concept is, `Feel free. It's passport free, smoke-free, hassle free," Orr says.
The goal is to highlight "nothing has changed in Windsor. The same reasons that were there before that attracted people are the same reasons why they should continue to come back," Francis says.
Advertising to Americans is crucial, Orr says. "They're still by far our biggest opportunity and potential ... The worst thing we could do now is not find the money to market our major marketplace."
At the same time, the city is trying to attract more Ontario travellers. "London is only an hour-and-a-half, two-hour drive away. We're trying to increase domestic visitation by marketing to them," Orr says.
He's optimistic more people will visit Windsor. "We know it will swing back around ... It's just a matter of getting there."
The $400 million casino expansion might be just what the city needs to encourage Londoners, other Ontario residents and U.S. travellers to make the drive. The expansion will add a entertainment venue, another hotel tower with more space for motor coaches and a convention centre that will be the third largest in the province.
The fact more than a dozen new businesses have opened downtown since January may be a sign things are moving in a positive direction, says Smith of the chamber of commerce. "There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel." |
