Tourist season off to good start here

Local businesses which represent the tourism sector most likely got a financial shot in the arm over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend.
More than 4,100 vehicles carrying some 13,800 non-residents crossed the international bridge into Fort Frances between last Thursday and Sunday–some waiting in line for more than two hours to reach Canada Customs.
Another 1,177 vehicles, carrying 2,786 non-residents, crossed over at Rainy River last weekend.
While those kinds of numbers aren’t seen every weekend throughout the summer, over the long haul it translates into big bucks for the district, said Dan Wright, economic development officer with the Rainy River Future Development Corp.
“An average of $200-$350 per day per family is spent here by touring traffic,” Wright noted yesterday. “It’s a multi-million dollar industry for the Rainy River District.”
Among the first to come into contact with tourists after they enter Canada here are the staff at the Ontario Travel Information Centre. Supervisor Jane Johnstone said almost 4,000 tourists–most of them fishermen–stopped by last Friday and Saturday.
And given the long wait at the border, a friendly smile and patience are keys to helping soothe the stress out of the tourist who has come to spend time and money here, Johnstone noted.
“We’re front-line people and [tourists] aren’t always happy campers when they’ve been waiting two hours to cross the border,” she admitted.
“We can turn their mood right around, though, and I think that’s very important,” stressed Johnstone. “If we’re not friendly, they could [go home] and go tell 25,000 other people–and you know how that works.”
Where anglers are the guests, most motels and hotels here reported Friday night as their busiest, with most taking off for the lakes by Saturday morning.
“Friday night is the big one for us,” said Gord Sisco, who owns the Rainbow Motel is the west end.
“And you can bet if somebody walks in that night without a reservation, they’ll have a hard time finding a room–no matter if it’s here or [someplace else],” he added.
Johnstone agreed, noting travel centre staff often run into the same problem when trying to help tourists without motel reservations find a place to stay here.
“Most [tourists] are getting wiser and calling ahead but [Fort Frances] is still losing a lot because there’s not enough room,” she warned. “We’ve had to send them up to Dryden and that’s so sad because they’re really tired.”
But Johnstone also acknowledged the good co-operation between area tourist operators and hotel/motel owners who call to let the travel centre know of room cancellations.
“We work together and that’s added hospitality for everyone and keeps the dollars in our area,” she said.
Sisco said his motel guest list has seen an increase in the number of Canadian tourists, with couples on motorcycles also on the rise. In fact, he estimated his guest list over the summer months averaged only 50 percent American tourists.
“We’ve had a lot of Canadians travelling through, and Europeans, which was really something,” he noted. “The other phenomenon is older couples in their late 50s and early 60s on motorcycles.
“I told my wife this is what we’re going to do when we really retire,” Sisco chuckled.