Council approves $300K for tourism marketing
City council will support a Niagara Falls Tourism marketing campaign to the tune of $300,000.
The money will come from the municipality’s casino-hosting reserve fund and will help to leverage financial contributions needed from other levels of government.
The $300,000 is separate from the $360,000 the city provides to the tourism agency as a fee-for-service, which comes out of the operating budget.
The operating budget is scheduled to go before council during the March 27 meeting.
Council also allocated $300,000 for the marketing campaign last year.
Jon Jackson, executive director of Niagara Falls Tourism, told councillors Tuesday evening that last year’s investment of $300,000 leveraged an additional $600,000 from regional, provincial and national partners.
“Through our marketing activities, we told the story of Niagara Falls to over 50-million Americans,
encouraging them to plan a trip to the city,” he said.
“We delivered over 1.2 million leads to our members. Niagara Falls is second best in the entire country at delivering leads to our partners.”
Jackson said 14.5-million people visited Niagara Falls, a number not seen since 2002.
Those visitors spent more than $2.3 billion in Niagara, he said, driving the economy, contributing to local taxes and creating jobs.
Jackson said 3.4-million hotel rooms were booked and Hornblower set another record for ridership, exceeding 2.3 million.
“Tourism is Niagara Falls’ No. 1 and most important industry. It is the major driver of our economy and its success is integral to the success of the city.”
He said there are more than 25,000 tourism businesses serving locals residents and visitors to the city.
These businesses employ more than 42,000 people.
“These are not low paying, minimum-wage jobs either,” said Jackson.
“The average salary in the tourism industry for Niagara Falls is $46,000 a year — these are careers.”
He said tourism also contributes taxes to three levels of government, including more than $56 million a year to the city.
“If the tourism industry was to disappear, the average homeowner’s property taxes would have to increase by over $500 per year to make up the difference. It is vitally important that we continue to invest in the tourism industry for it to keep our city healthy and prosperous and continue to create jobs.”
Jackson said the city is not the “sole investor” in the agency’s marketing activities.
He said industry partners have invested more than $2.5 million in the agency’s activities this year.
“Their continued trust, combined with your investment, allows us to market our city around the world.”
Jackson said the $300,000 will entirely be allocated to marketing activities.
“This investment, to put it in perspective, will account for .2 per cent of the total operating budget for Niagara Falls, reinvesting in an industry that delivers 41 per cent of the operational revenue for the city, ensuring its health and its ability to grow.”
Coun. Wayne Thomson, who is also chairman of Niagara Falls Tourism, said the $300,000 request is a “no-brainer” for council to support.
“It’s the same as we asked for last year and (tourism) really is the lifeblood of this community,” he said.
“If this was denied or turned down … it would be more people going to Project SHARE than you can imagine.”