Borderland Tourism as an Indicator of National Travel

The subject of borders is core to international travel, yet remains an understudied component of tourism research. This paper evaluates the tourism performance of Canada’s premier border destination, Niagara Falls, to gain insight to the national market trend of declining U.S. visitation to Canada. An assessment of eight years of accommodation reservation data indicates that American visitors spend more, and stay longer than Canadian visitors to Niagara Falls. Thus, as bookings shift from Americans to Canadians, revenues per available room are negatively affected. This close examination of borderland reservations highlights the significant shift in tourism that can result from the macro effects of health and safety concerns, tighter custom regulations, and economic turmoil