{"id":184148,"date":"2026-04-03T03:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184148\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:38:11","slug":"as-canadian-tourism-cools-in-nys-rochester-still-a-domestic-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184148\/","title":{"rendered":"As Canadian tourism cools in NYS, Rochester still a domestic draw"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) \u2014 New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said recent policies at the federal level \u2014 including higher tariffs and immigration restrictions \u2014 are hurting tourism in the state. <\/p>\n<p>There was a steep decline in visitors from Canada in 2025 \u2014 around 21%, a decrease of some 3.6 million visitors, according to DiNapoli.<\/p>\n<p>New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli&#8217;s newsletter  released April 2, 2026 on federal tariffs&#8217; impact on tourism in the state.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"PdfEmbed_downloadLink__tZFvP\" href=\"http:\/\/13wham.com\/resources\/pdf\/d06a748d-92a2-4fef-b36d-ee411ff39155-DiNapoliletter.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;navpanes=0&amp;scrollbar=0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to view the PDF file<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, Don Jeffries with Visit Rochester said while New York is taking an overall hit in revenue and foot traffic, Rochester is not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen definitely a decline in foot traffic from Canada,&#8221; said Jeffries, adding that hotels have felt it the most. &#8220;But we&#8217;ve been very, very fortunate because our meeting and convention business, our sports business, the film business, the leisure travel have made up for it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Jeffries said border cities like Buffalo and areas like the 1,000 Islands have felt the Canadian cessation far more than the Flower City. <\/p>\n<p>But for some specific attractions \u2014 like the Rochester Museum and Science Center \u2014 the loss of Canadian customers has caused them to take notice. <\/p>\n<p>Kira Sandoval with RMSC said in the first quarter of 2024, they had the highest number of visitors from the prior few years. In quarter one of 2025, they saw a dip of 53%. In the first quarter of 2026 \u2014 compared to 2024, a drop of 59%.<\/p>\n<p>Shane Rhinewald with the Strong National Museum of Play said they have seen a \u201csizable decline\u201d in attendance from Canadian tourists. However, it has not had a noticeable impact on their operations. <\/p>\n<p>Eliza Benington with the George Eastman Museum said &#8220;We have seen a slight drop in international travel, mostly the complete drop in motorcoach tour groups from Canada. However, the numbers have not been significant and we&#8217;re still seeing a good number of individual visitors from Canada.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All that said, taking a more macro-focus on the region, Jeffries said Rochester is a \u201cdrive market\u201d where the domestic draw is going to be a seller for American families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost people don&#8217;t realize that Rochester is within a five-hour drive time for a third of the population of the United States,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p>Jeffries said in this area, there\u2019s always something going on that will attract those tourists. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cGenesee Country Village Museum, (the) Museum and Science Center, the Red Wings, the Amerks,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got so many things to offer. And the festivals. We are the capital of upstate New York festivals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) \u2014 New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said recent policies at the federal level \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-184148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}