Straddling the U.S.-Canadian border and sharing New York and Ontario addresses, Niagara Falls, the world’s second- largest cascade behind southern Africa’s Victoria Falls, has perennially drawn vacationers, families and sweethearts.
Now, the booming, jaw-dropping Horseshoe Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and American Falls are the backdrops to the destination’s biggest splash in years—on the convention front.
Opening April 8, the new Scotiabank Convention Centre Niagara (SCCN) gives the Canadian side its long-sought major meetings asset, and local excitement, needless to say, is as gushing as the falls themselves.
"The resounding message we are already hearing from planners is that the center has changed Niagara Falls," says SCCN President and General Manager Kerry Painter, who has helped guide the "unconventional" project from conception to completion.
Reachable by road and rail and served by three major airports—Buffalo/Niagara, Toronto Pearson and Hamilton, along with Direct Air, Spirit Airlines and Vision Airlines service into the smaller Niagara Falls International Airport—the destination draws around 11 million visitors a year.
Niagara Falls, N.Y.
From its breathtaking namesake waterfalls, thousands of years in the making, to Old Fort Niagara, dominating the Niagara River’s exit since 1726, this frontier destination’s hallmark is history. As both sides of the border prepare for the War of 1812 bicentennial in 2012, the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation and its destination partners are channeling the locale’s pioneering legacy to develop new meetings business.
"With projects including the revitalization of downtown’s historic main thoroughfare, Old Falls Street, the rebranding of the Crowne Plaza Niagara Falls as a Sheraton and the opening in April of a new 141-room Four Points by Sheraton, Niagara Falls is on the verge of a renaissance," says John Percy, president and CEO of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation, adding in turn that meeting planner interest, along with convention business, is picking up. "With price-consciousness a major draw when coming back from a recession, affordability is a primary reason planners are choosing us."
The city’s principal meetings venue is the 116,000-square-foot, IACC-certified Conference Center Niagara Falls. With convenient single-level exhibition and meeting space, the center’s diverse attributes include 32,200 square feet of total event center space and a 19,500-square-foot conference center featuring 15 purpose-built meeting rooms, an executive boardroom and a 49-seat amphitheater.
With nearly 4,000 rooms across Niagara County, Niagara Falls proper counts some 20 hotel properties, placing 2,000 convention-friendly hotel rooms within 10 minutes of the center. Among the primary coordinates for planners is the AAA Four Diamond Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel. Boasting 604 rooms, including 86 corner suites and 22 one-bedroom suites, along with 30,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, dining and entertainment, it is Western New York’s largest hotel.
Led by legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the 19th century Free Niagara movement was founded in opposition to the environmental harm posed by the industrialization of Niagara Falls. The movement’s most visible legacy is America’s oldest state park, the 400-acre Olmsted-designed Niagara Falls State Park, opened in 1885. With planner-ready products including the iconic Maid of the Mist boat ride, Goat Island, Niagara Gorge Discovery Center, Aquarium of Niagara and signature Top of the Falls Restaurant, the park serves not only as an impressively diversified asset for Niagara Falls-based groups, but also for groups based some 30 minutes away in Buffalo, N.Y.
Indeed, Niagara Falls conveniently extends and enhances all that its closest major metropolitan neighbor has to offer. Olmsted also made his mark in Buffalo, contributing America’s first parks system to a city heralded today as a veritable museum of outstanding architecture and home to a thriving cultural and performing arts scene.
"Invigoration" is the operative word for Buffalo this year, symbolized by the 153-room Embassy Suites Buffalo. A bona fide hit since opening in July 2010, the property is already expanding to 182 rooms, slated to open this fall. With the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center and 396-room Hyatt Regency Buffalo both newly refreshed, Buffalo, like Niagara Falls, is sailing full speed ahead.
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Reached from the American side via three international bridges, including the conveniently walkable Rainbow Bridge, the commanding Canadian side of Niagara Falls, home to over 16,000 hotel rooms, is an attractive destination for groups of up to 6,000 people. It has a winning track record for meetings.
"Our hotel partners have successfully secured self-contained conferences and meetings for many years, focused on Canadian national and provincial associations," says Paula Racher, director of sales, MC&IT, for Niagara Falls Tourism. "With the opening of the Scotiabank Convention Centre Niagara, we can pursue the U.S. corporate and association markets and secure larger citywide business while retaining our strong ties within the Canadian marketplace, benefitting the entire destination."
At 53 floors, the 1,000-room, AAA Four Diamond Hilton Hotel and Suites Niagara Falls/Fallsview, with a glass-covered connection to the $1 billion Fallsview Casino Resort and 12,000 square feet of flexible space, is Canada’s tallest hotel.
In 2010, Meetings Focus East readers voted the 432-room Marriott Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel & Spa a "Best of the East" property in Eastern Canada and the U.S. Just 100 yards from the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, this AAA Four Diamond draw, which has 10,000 square feet of flexible space and is 350 steps from the new convention center, will get a sister property following the reflagging of the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel & Conference Centre into the Marriott Gateway on the Falls. Upon completion of a $15 million renovation, commencing this spring, the combined properties will provide 839 rooms and suites and more than 50,000 square feet of meeting space. Add the 258-room Courtyard by Marriott Niagara Falls just one block from the waterfalls, and it’s a local Marriott three-pack.
The AAA Four Diamond, 670-room Sheraton on the Falls and the newly renovated 233-room Crowne Plaza Hotel Niagara Falls are among the destination’s other meetings-ready properties.
Superior service defines the world-class Niagara Parks Commission (NPC), a self-funded governmental agency created in 1885 to maintain and preserve Niagara Falls and the Niagara River corridor. Managing 4,250 acres of parks and amenities from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the commission, renowned for its environmental stewardship, is a one-stop shop for planning and attendance building.
"Offering a world-class collection of private special event venues, natural wonder attractions and legendary golf courses, all located near elegant hotels in key Niagara locations, we can assist in making events unforgettable," says Amy Duffy, corporate sales manager for NPC’s convention sales and service division.
Partner highlights include Table Rock Centre, historic home of the Elements on the Falls restaurant; Queen Victoria Place, featuring Edgewater’s Tap & Grill; signature events such as VIP wine tours and receptions behind the falls; and themed events such as illumination of the falls in the corporation’s colors and dazzling fireworks displays.
Jeff Heilman is a frequent contributor to Meetings Focus East.
