U.S. visits to Sarnia on upswing, stats show
Exchange rate may be helping
U.S. visitors came to Sarnia-Lambton in droves this summer, eclipsing last year’s numbers and helping a market still recovering from stricter border regulations imposed in June 2009. That’s after Statistics Canada published a report saying travel to Canada was up more than one per cent from July to August. The biggest gains were in the areas that benefit Sarnia the most — same day trips from the United States and trips made by car, both up 1.1 per cent from July.
Sarnia tourism needed the boost. According to the border data, fewer than 171,000 American visitors crossed the Blue Water Bridge over the summer last year — the lowest combined mark for July and August since 2009. Winter tourism took a hit too, bottoming out at only 37,874 U.S. drivers making the trip in February 2018. That’s the lowest single month of tourism since Statistics Canada started tracking the stat in 1990. Summer tourism rebounded in 2018 however, with more than 179,000 visitors — a 4.7 per cent increase from 2017 and the highest single total since 2010. Also encouraging: the second-highest total since 2010 was 2016, indicating this year could be indicative of a longer trend.
“I think the exchange rate has definitely helped,” said Vicky Praill, with Tourism Sarnia-Lambton.
It’s good news for a tourism industry trying to appeal to U.S. customers. Before 2009, those prospective customers were only required to have a licence — not a passport — to cross into Canada. In June 2009, regulations restricting travel to passport-carrying travellers caused more Americans to stay home.
“Once they put the new rules in place with passports and Nexus cards, I think we did see a drop-off in American visitors. Some of them decided they didn’t want to get a passport,” said Gerry Lee, operations manager with the Blue Water Bridge Duty Free Shop. “We did see a decrease in business.” Over the next four years the Canadian dollar stayed at par or near its U.S. counterpart, also deterring American visitors. But a weaker dollar and an increase in held passports has given American travel new life.
“I think (the numbers have rebounded),” Lee said. “Now I think they’re more comfortable getting passports. And they see the incentive to come shop in Canada.” The next step will be to increase winter tourism. To put last winter in context: since 1990, only three months have fewer than 40,000 American vehicles come to Canada over the Blue Water Bridge. Two were January 2018 (39,424) and February 2018 (37,874). That’s despite international hockey tournaments like this weekend’s CCM-sponsored Elite Hockey World Invite Tournament (Nov. 2-4) in Sarnia and Port Huron. This year’s tournament will feature teams from across the United States including ones from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Houston.
“With our hockey tournaments we’ve seen an increase in American teams,” Praill said. “That’s in the fall an winter (months).” A silver lining: the numbers used by Statistics Canada only refer to vehicles. Team buses only count as one regardless how many players are on board.
Sarnia still isn’t close to the so-called glory days in the 1990s, when Blue Water Bridge numbers eclipsed a combined 260,000 vehicles in July and August in 1993, 1997, 1998, and 1999. In that final year, roughly 308,000 American drivers came over the Blue Water Bridge over two months.