When a low loonie is good news

For various economic reasons, the Canadian dollar has fallen in recent months (tumbling 0.75 of a U.S. cent to 76.17 cents Tuesday), certainly making it difficult for Canadian cross-border shoppers, but the lower loonie is attracting much-needed American tourists and their money back to Sault Ste. Marie and area.

"A number of things have aligned (to bring in more American tourists and their money) said Ian McMillan, Tourism Sault Ste. Marie Executive Director, speaking to SooToday Tuesday. 

"The decline in the Canadian dollar has made coming back to Canada more of a bargain (for American tourists)."

"(Secondly) over the past 18 months we're starting to see Americans come back into Ontario, and a part of that is the whole passport issue," McMillan added.

"I recently read a report where upward of almost 200 million Americans now have passports (lifting bureaucratic restrictions which had hindered travel and tourism)."

"(In addition) for the first time in a decade Ontario Tourism has spent a lot of money focused on the U.S. market trying to get them to come to Ontario, so we at Tourism Sault Ste. Marie have piggy-backed on that and early on in the season, promoting for the summer, we spent more time and effort and dollars focused on the U.S. market."

That effort, McMillan said, has paid off.

"On our summer campaign web portal, where we drive all the traffic for the Agawa Canyon Tour Train packages, U.S. visits to that web portal have gone up by 294 percent over last year."

The portal can be reached at agawatrain.com

"Package sales to date have increased significantly over last year…out of the U.S. alone we have a 56 percent increase in package sales from U.S. residents, so that points to a very encouraging trend." 

McMillan said the traditional U.S. markets of Michigan and Wisconsin have been targeted with tourist attraction efforts by Tourism Sault Ste. Marie, but he added other efforts from his office this year were also focused on Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

"We do know in June and July the rider levels on the Agawa Canyon Tour Train have increased significantly over last year."

"We're going in the right direction."

Exact numbers of visitors to tourist attractions such as the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, the Ermatinger-Clergue National Historic Site and others are not usually known until after the Canadian Thanksgiving Day in October, McMillan said.