Niagara City Cruises hits 15-millionth guest milestone
Niagara City Cruises has welcomed 15 million guests on board its boats since assuming ferry operations in 2014.
This season marked the earliest opening in the history of any boat tour in Niagara Falls, due to favourable weather through the spring.
With a strong start and rebound of tourism to Niagara, the boat-tour attraction officially crossed the milestone threshold Thursday.
To hit 15 million visitors in less than a decade, especially considering the challenges of the last few years, is a significant achievement," said Mory DiMaurizio, chief operating officer of City Cruises in Canada.
Niagara City Cruises started the ferry to the falls on the Canadian side of the Niagara River during the 2014 season under the banner Hornblower Niagara Cruises and marked its first million visitors by Aug. 16 that first year.
The attraction was re-branded Niagara City Cruises in 2021 as part of an overarching global rebrand initiative and is now part of the City Experiences portfolio of travel products.
The Voyage to the Falls boat tour is a 20-minute excursion. Starting at the dock in the Niagara Gorge, passengers cruise past the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls before coming to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.
From the deck of one of the twin catamarans, people can feel the roar of the water, witness its power and get immersed in the mist.
DiMaurizio said the attraction, like other tourism offerings, are still recovering from at first being closed, then facing restrictions, in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We're thankful that we were fortunate enough to be in a position to navigate through the troubling times of the pandemic," he said. It wasn't easy. You had to really become innovative and creative in what you could do with the restrictions, but it's definitely a great feeling to be able to put through 15 million. We can contemplate and wishful think and suppose all we want about what that number could have been if we had another two, three years behind us, but 15 (million) is a great number."
DiMaurizio said this year is trending very much in the right direction."
If it keeps trending the way it's going, this is going to be a very significant year - potentially it could surpass our best year."
He said Niagara City Cruises is proud" of its team for consistently delivering a world-class visitors experience," and the business is invested in seeing the entire Niagara Falls destination succeed.
That is the mindset - to bring people to Niagara. Of course, when they're here we will definitely capitalize because we're a Day 1 experience, but we know that it's not just about us," said DiMaurizio. People don't come here just for a boat, or just to stand and look at the water, or just to do any one individual particular thing. It's the collection of things, it's the buffet of offerings that really drives the visitation and we support that, we really push the concepts."
He said Niagara City Cruises continues to come up with new ways to enhance the visitor experience.
We know that when people stand in the sun, they're hot, they want to sit down, they want to have a drink. We want to make that experience more comfortable for them," said DiMaurizio.
So, this year, we're saying, OK, how can we institute shade structures and misting/cooling down areas? Things that make the experience that much more comfortable or a better experience. We're working on a half a dozen things for this year - a lot of things that require capital for next year that will further invest in the business to make it, again, better for the guests because it's the guest experience that is paramount."
Ray Spiteri is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach him via email: raymond.spiteri@niagaradailies.com