Hot Vacation Spot For Northerners Comes Courtesy Of Dollar Rally

“It made it a little cheaper on us to be able to come over and enjoy ourselves a little more,” Breeden said. They hadn’t planned on doing much gambling but the exchange rate made it easier so they went almost every night.

During years when the Canadian dollar is strong, such as when it peaked in 2007 at 91 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar, Canadians flow into New York to take advantage of the bargain prices at fashion-outlet malls in Niagara Falls and Buffalo. That they’re keeping their loonies close to home hasn’t escaped the attention of U.S. tourism authorities.

“All of the destinations along the Canadian border on the U.S. side, we should all be worried,” said Julie Gilbert, director of marketing and communications at Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., in her office in Niagara Falls, New York.

The organization doesn’t have any concrete numbers on how much Canadian visits declined in 2015, but it expect them to continue to be soft this year, she said. The board is encouraging hotels to offer their room rates at par until the exchange rate improves, Gilbert said. “We just have to keep making sure that we’re staying in the market because it’s very cyclical.”

Back on the Canadian side, the weaker loonie poses risks for even those winning the exchange-rate battle. The interior of a new C$3 million mirror and laser-maze attraction is being built in the U.S. and partially paid for in U.S. dollars, Clifton Group’s Burland said. Food costs in his restaurants are also skyrocketing.

“We don’t know where the price of lettuce is going to be in July,” he said. “We may have to reprint the menus two or three times this summer, which we’ve really never done before, to compensate.” The “perfect world” is an 80 U.S. cent Canadian dollar, he said.

Burland is capitalizing on the prospect of another strong summer by planning to hire 15 to 20 percent more staff, as well as launching the new attraction and rebuilding two more damaged in a fire last summer. For a business that has made a profit only a third of the time over the last 14 years, he’s optimistic.

“I’m relaxed,” he said with a grin. “A good feeling, for a change, it’s nice to see the company make money.”