Floating new ideas for tourism
Posted By MATTHEW VAN DONGEN, STANDARD STAFF
Posted 10 months ago
In Niagara, Jim Ryan is a lock star.
Dressed in no-nonsense brown overalls and a white hard hat, the Newfoundland native doesn't necessarily look like he has a legion of fans.
But the first mate aboard the Canadian Enterprise is grinning as the bulk carrier slides into Lock 3 along the Welland Canal on this blustery August day around 4:45 p. m.
He knows what comes next.
"I guess we're the show," says the veteran officer, as rushing water slowly floats the Ohiobound self-unloader above the edges of the lock.
"People want to know everything. Where you headed? What are you carrying? How much do you weigh?
"They always wave and make noise for us. It's kind of funny -- but nice."
As Ryan's head pops above the lock, more than 50 canal groupies lining the viewing platform at the Welland Canals Centre begin to buzz.
Cameras flash. Children cheer. Nearly everyone waves.
Ship-watching is probably one of Niagara's favourite free tourist traditions. As the Canadian Enterprise makes its slow transit this day from Hamilton harbour through the canal, the red and black laker passes nautical spectators at every lock and lift bridge.
Some are passing tourists, awed by the magnitude of the quiet giants. Others are cyclists following the waterway from lake to lake. A few are self-styled "boat nerds" who know the history of the canal and its vessels by heart.
The Welland Canal, despite sagging commercial traffic, is still a defining tourist draw for Niagara.
Politicians and canal operators are betting tourism will be part of a solution to reinvigorate both the beleaguered waterway and its canal-side communities.
From the deck of the Canadian Enterprise, the tourists packed onto the raised viewing platform at the Welland Canals Centre look like wildly optimistic prison inmates.
That's because their cameras and faces are squashed up against a two-metre-high wrought-iron fence, installed two years ago for security reasons.
"The fence is a bit of a drag," admits Kim Payne, tourism development officer for St. Catharines.
"But most people don't seem to mind too much."
What they do mind is a lack of ships.
The Canadian Enterprise is a welcome sight on the canal in a recession-battered year featuring a 30 per cent drop in canal traffic from March to Aug. 31 compared with last year.
As traffic declines, so does the number of visitors to the city's canal centre and museum complex.
With this year's tourism season drawing to a close, the centre has attracted only 74,000 visitors, compared with about 122,000 last year.
In the future, Payne hopes to better harness the drawing power of canals both past and present.
For example, he said the city is working on a self-guided map of canal remnants to attract more cyclists, a growing part of Niagara's tourism equation.
He also wants to find creative ways to lure boat watchers from the waterway to the rest of the city.
"Right now, they're not spending a lot of money here," he said. "They can pile off the bus, run onto the (viewing) platform, then head back to Niagara- on-the-Lake or wherever."
Payne believes linking the centre to a larger tour of canal-related remnants will convince tourists to spend more time -- and money -- in the city. An effort by Regional Coun. Bruce Timms to have all the canals designated as a heritage corridor, still under consideration by the federal government, could help, Payne said.
"We have a great story in the canal and its history," he said. "We just haven't been able to tell that story as well as we would like."
Evening is falling as the Canadian Enterprise prepares to climb the mountain in Thorold.
The flight locks are probably the most famous engineering feature along the entire length of the 43-kilometre canal.
Locks 4, 5 and 6 are twinned watery staircases, allowing ships to move up and down the escarpment simultaneously.
Captain Kenneth MacKenzie, a regular canal traveller, is still awed by the 77-year-old feat of engineering, which is slowly lifting his vessel to the top of the escarpment, 174 metres above sea level.
"I'm still impressed, absolutely," he said, gazing at the 25-metre- high plate-steel gates of Lock 4, each weighing more than 500 tonnes. "The idea of it, to basically just use water to move 27,000 tonnes and more up a hill. It's pretty amazing."
The flight locks passed their first ship almost eight decades ago. This summer, they hosted another historic event, one promising to increase Seaway traffic and, hopefully, bring more visitors to Niagara's wineries and tourist hot spots.
On June 25, local politicians, Seaway officials and the Thorold Reed Band rolled out the red carpet along the west wall of Lock 7 for the Clelia II, a luxury cruise ship making its maiden voyage through the canal with 75 well-heeled passengers.
The Michigan-based vessel, owned by Great Lakes Cruise Company, was one of three luxury ships cruising the Great Lakes this summer.
There will be more, according to Steven Burnett, executive director of the Great Lakes Cruising Association.
"We're the last great uncruised region of the world," said Burnett, who said he knows of eight different companies planning or considering luxury cruises on the Great Lakes.
"It's becoming more popular to do... and people enjoy the tourism opportunities offered by the Niagara region."
Burnett said the latest trend is for cruise ships approaching the canal to drop passengers in Port Weller or Port Colborne to be shuttled in style between wineries, Niagara Falls and Niagara-on- the-Lake.
After a full or half-day of sightseeing, they rejoin the ship at the far end of the canal, or in Thorold.
They dock plenty of dollars in the process. "These ships are like travelling bank vaults," Burnett said. "They come in quietly, leave their money, and go quietly again."
Floating hotels aren't the only new tourism business on the canal, either.
Jonny Marler has begun a recreational boat repair business on the east side of the canal near Port Weller.
"This is a major nautical artery -- anybody going anywhere has to pass by our door," said Marler.
"It's the perfect location if you think of the history, with so many of the biggest boat builders operating out of St. Catharines at one time or another," he added, pointing to past industry leaders Hinterhoeller Yachts, C & C Yachts and, most recently, Neptunus.
Right now, Marler's Lakeshore Boat Yard is a good example of the old and new canal.
He and his six employees work out of an ancient-looking wharf and dock building that has been around for decades. At the same time, Marler has invested in what he believes to be the largest boat lift on Lake Ontario, capable of handling a yacht 7.8 metres wide and 30 metres long.
If he can come to terms with the Seaway on a lease, Marler wants to build a storage warehouse big enough to hold up to 70 over-wintering vessels.
Right now, he said most Great Lakes yachts in the region are stored on the American side.
"I think there's an opportunity to bring business back here. I think there's more you could do with (the canal) from a recreation and tourism perspective," he said.
Marler isn't the only one who thinks so. In The Standard's final story, we look at efforts to bring local companies and the Seaway together.
mvandongen@
stcatharinesstandard.ca
