This past Sunday, June 24th, David Robinson, Buffalo News business writer, produced a piece titled “A place to launch the tech sector.”   He tells a short story of Jordan Levy and his partner Ronald Schreiber.  The two venture capitalists are looking for young individual willing to get a business started at a high tech incubator.  They know that our best and brightest usually take their brains, ideas, and dreams elsewhere to achieve success.  They hope to play a role in the brain drain.  Most telling is their recognition of the real problem with business in Buffalo and the Niagara Region:

Too often, Levy said, those dreamers move on to other places, like New York City or Silicon Valley, where there’s already a thriving community of techies, lots of capital and the sense that this is the place to be.

Levy knows all about that. His son graduated from the University of Michigan last month. On Wednesday, he started a new job – in New York City.

“I want to stop this outflow of young people,” Levy said. “If we can create an ecosystem in Buffalo where, all of a sudden, there’s a tech community … then they can come here and they can see something good.”

Levy thinks part of it is cultural, a strong sense of conservatism that favors the safe over the risky. “We don’t have that infrastructure and the psyche of starting a business,” he said. “They say ‘I’ll just keep my job.’ “

This hold fast, don’t do anything, be overly cautious and question all new thought is really a plague.  Since August of 2011 and associate and I talked to anyone and everyone we could find regarding doing something different to grow the local economy.  We attend business forums, transportation meetings, spoke with managers, etc.  In each case we found little or not enthusiasm.  The worst was a rather overt expression that someone may be treading on their turf.  To me that is the height of play it extremely safe conservative.  Don’t play to win, play not to lose.

I can believe it though.  I and an associate have spent the past 10 months trying to get tourism sold as  a real source of long term jobs generation instead of a local business that feeds off the “drive-by” visitor on their way somewhere else.  The locals just don’t see it and just don’t want to get involved.  They are literally happy with what comes their way.

People see Niagara Falls and no one bothers to direct them to Fort Niagara, Fort George, Fort Erie, the Bi-National Wine Trails, The Shaw Festival, Historic Niagara-On-The-Lake, Historic Lewiston-Youngstown, Buffalo Erie Canal Harbor, the museums, the galleries, the festivals, the best fresh water fishing in North America, etc.

Renee Simonian a local travel packager went to New York State Development and the Niagara County Center for Business Development seeking assistance in bringing a steady flow of German Tourists to the area on 12 day guided tours.  No one was interested, she is going it alone.

Edgar Ramirez has been bringing Spanish speaking European tourists to Niagara Falls from New York City for 30 years.  They are typically on 1 day visits because nothing more is offered locally and no one is marketing their hotels, sites, and businesses targeting foreign airlines, travel agencies, and packagers.

Read the news listen to all the talk, and all you ever hear is marketing, marketing, marketing yet we continue not to market even though what we have is very marketable.

I have been visiting the Buffalo Harbor and Erie Basin Marina since the opening days of harbor reconstruction 30 some years ago.  As soon as the weather turned, my three, then very young, children and I would begin making the first of our 10-12 visits each summer season to stroll the Erie Basin Marina peninsula, a visit to the Naval and Serviceman’s Park (opened 1979) topped off with an ice cream and soft drink.

Back then the crowds were relatively sparse but began growing quite quickly as people realized that the river, lake, fresh air, and glorious sunsets were something not to be missed.  The area continues to grow.  The Naval Park has expanded.  The Erie Basin Marina is packed with boat rentals, there’s a quality restaurant in Templeton’s Landing, the original Erie Canal has been rediscovered, uncovered and identified under its original name – The Commercial Slip.

Commencing this summer reconstruction has begun on the myriad of canal branches that constituted the 19th Buffalo waterfront.  Visitors will have an opportunity to ride on replicas of Buffalo’s very own 19th century “gondolas”.  And a walkway is being prepared to reach the brand new Buffalo River Fest Park.  A park which no doubt will actually be forever called “:Peg’s Park” in honor of Peg Overdorf of the Valley Community Association who worked tirelessly to see it come into being.

There is plenty going in in Buffalo these days.  My gut feeling is that we are turning the corner and people will discover the great history of this area and will enjoy being part of its retelling.

If you would like to read a great recap of Buffalo Harbor History then you need to read Commercial Slip, Harbor Development and Canal District by Thomas X. Grasso of the Canal Society of New York State.. Click to read. 

And there needs to be a new theme song for “NIckel City,”  maybe this one fits the bill:

I’ve maintained for a considerable number of years, going back to the 1970-80s when I worked in the Air Freight business, there is opportunity in tourism and we do very little to promote it or provide enough activities to attract long term travelers and vacationers.

A couple of months ago, my associate Attorney Jean Gittler and I crossed paths with two Russian travelers at Niagara Falls Terrapin Point.  Their names were Dennis and Sergei.  Both were employees of the City of Moscow municipal government.  Both were in their mid-30s.  This was their first overseas trip.  A trip Dennis said was a trip of a lifetime.  There were here for 16 days and chose carefully the sights they planned on visiting.  New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago and Niagara Falls.

If you paid attention you did not see Florida, Texas, or Arizona.  That’s because there are travelers who are interested in more.  We need to find them, market to them, chase them and chase them hard.

I was reading the 2011 Market Profile for Russia prepared by the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.

It identified the Russian Traveler as:

66% – Leisure/Recreation/Holiday Travelers

19% – Rented a car

95%- Shopped

82%- Visited Restaurants

65%- Visited Historical Places

14 days- Average Length of Stay

35 – Average Age Female

36- Average Age Male

$51,000 – Median Income.

We have shopping, dining and historic sights.  We need to package them and sell them.  What we don’t have is direct air service into Niagara Falls.  Local Business, Convention and Visitors Bureaus, Chambers of Commerce, and Business Development Offices don’t seem to want to play hardball and pony up the cash to compete for a much greater share of the tourism market.

One way to get started would be to pursue Baltia Airlines.  A start up based at New York’s JFK airport.  The airline plans on initial service between JFK and Russia’s #2 city of St. Petersburg on completion of its FAA Certification process.  Each group has funds available.  There are bed taxes in place.  Someone should get in touch with Baltia and offer to subsidize a JFK-Niagara Falls leg to its planned St. Petersburg flight.  Properly presented the Rochester-Buffalo-Niagara Falls-Hamilton-Toronto region might have appeal to the airline.

One thing for sure, if the question is never asked and/or the offer ever presented the result will always be a negative.

I’ve written about it before,  I and an associate have spent the past 9 months selling to nothing that this Bi-National region has the potential to be a stand alone tourism destination.  At present it is saddled with the moniker “day-tripper destination.”  That is see the Falls.  Ride the Maid of the Mist, go to a Casino then quickly head on to the next destination.  Local businessmen, elected officials, and planners have locked themselves into the notion that our tourism can only thrive when New York City and Toronto travel and tour agents find it in their hearts to send us international travelers.  Travelers, that is,  who invariably begin their North American vacations with them.

That is quite the shame.  There are enough things to do in the Bi-National Niagara Region to keep visitors occupied for at least a week and not do the same thing repetitively.  We just need to find a way to shake up the entrenched allocation of tourism system under which we are expected to function.

We must find out niche and sell it.  There are plenty of travel niches into which we suitably fit.  Take your pick from the recognized tourism types below and start advocating to all who will listen:

Archeological, Architectural, Arts, Bicycle, Boating, Culinary, Cultural, Day Tripper, Escorted, Festival, Garden, Gaming, Genealogy, Geologic and Park, Ghetto, Heritage, Hiking, Historic, Literary, Military, Musical, Religious,  Rural, Sacred, Scenic, Sports, Walking, Wine.