More Americans are slowly coming back to visit Windsor-Essex.
Tourism Windsor-Essex-Pelee Island CEO Gordon Orr says trips have increased to about 4-million visits in 2015-2016.
The high point for American visits to the region was about 9-million trips a year, which occurred shortly after Caesars Windsor opened.
Orr says getting back to the high point reached in the late 90's isn't likely to ever happen again, but they're making progress.
"It's about half of what it once was, but we never expect to get back up there — but we had hit at one point about 3.1-million American visitors coming over, so it's good to see there's been some growth the last number of years," says Orr.
The Ambassador Bridge connects Windsor and Detroit. (Photo courtesy iStock/jimfeng)
The stronger US dollar may be to thank for the increase in visits, but Orr feels the craft beer and wine scene in the region is also attracting more visitors.
He adds keeping up the momentum will mean continuing to sell Americans on the region.
"We've always had a presence; we're going to augment that by marketing — but we've got to remind them why they want to come over," says Orr. "They're not just going to come over because of the fact that we have a stronger dollar and a lot of Americans still don't understand the exchange rate, so it takes some education on that front as well."
A new "coffee trail" including 10 artisan coffee shops in the region may be the next attraction that brings in new visitors.
"When we looked at it we saw that this was something that was growing and when we recognized that it was growing, then it's, 'How do we bring the partners together?'" says Orr. "To see if they want to package it and promote it together."
Tourism Windsor-Essex-Pelee Island plans to introduce a new campaign on June 7th to market the "coffee trail."