By Paul Lane – Niagara Gazette
CNHI
NORTH TONAWANDA — A recent report on cnn.com highlighted the Falls’ renaissance as a honeymoon destination.
“We just had a ball,” Amy Wieller of Virginia told the Web site of her Niagara honeymoon in September. “You kind of feel like a kid when you’re back there … (and) that view — you can’t not be romantic there.”
Rebecca Dolgin, executive editor of theknot.com, told CNN that the Cataract City’s fun factor is one of the reasons that Niagara Falls is one of her site’s 19 best North American honeymoon hot spots.
“It’s sort of kitschy and it’s fun, and it’s for couples who maybe don’t take it too seriously,” Dolgin said. “I don’t think anyone is going to come back from Niagara being disappointed. You know when you go there what you’re getting into. It’s the same kind of thing with Las Vegas.”
Helping out with the bump in interest was the episode of “The Office” that was based in Niagara Falls. The Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation saw an 83 percent increase in Web traffic after the episode aired in October, CNN reported.
Jessica and Tim Hamlet of Portland, Ore., who honeymooned in the Falls in April 2009, said they’re already looking at returning.
“We’re planning to go back to Niagara Falls for our fifth anniversary, our 10th and our 25th and our 50th and pretty much as often as we can go back,” Jessica said.
Should any businesses ever consider coming to the Buffalo-Niagara region, a recent accounting report said they would have a bargain on their hands.
The accounting firm KPMG recently released a study of the most and least expensive cities in which to conduct business. Among mid-sized cities — those with a population between 1 million and 2 million — Buffalo-Niagara came in at No. 3 out of 12 cities that were examined.
The study concluded that big cities, although they attract more attention, cost more. Labor costs and facility costs were both 12 percent lower locally than the national average, the report said.
Out of cities of all sized, Buffalo-Niagara came in at No. 36 out of 75 cities in the United States and Canada.