Eclipse News: Niagara Falls Expecting One MIllion Visitors on April 8th 2024 to View Solar Eclipse

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Call it a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see two natural wonders at once.
Niagara Falls is getting widespread praise as a prime destination for viewing the total solar eclipse, and Canadian and American civic leaders are bracing for hundreds of thousands of visitors on April 8.
The mayor of Niagara Falls, Ont., said he expects to host the largest crowd in the city’s history for a single event.
“Ever,” Mayor Jim Diodati said in an interview. “By far. By far.”
Eclipse chasers and other travelers have snapped up hotel rooms in and around the Falls.
Governments in Ontario and New York have scheduled special activities for the days leading up to the eclipse. Schools on both sides of the border have decided to close that day to avoid getting caught in the crowds.
And businesses are getting in on the action, too, with everything from a restaurant’s celestial-themed menu to a skydiving trip over the Falls perfectly timed with the totality.
“We know the hotel rooms are already booked,” said Janice Thomson, president and CEO of Niagara Falls Tourism in Ontario. “And we know that the attractions and the restaurants are all gearing up to cater to thousands and thousands of people.”
Uncommon event
Both cities of Niagara Falls are among the North American communities within a narrow band stretching from Mexico to Canada that will experience a rare total solar eclipse on April 8.
The last time this happened in the Buffalo area was 1925, and it won’t return again to our region until 2144.
National Geographic ranked watching the solar eclipse in Niagara Falls at No. 11 on its list of the top 20 travel experiences in the world for 2024 – between hiking a volcano in Panama and trekking a glacier in Chile.
And Space.com listed Niagara Falls as the most scenic spot in America from which to view the total eclipse.
“I think it’s because Niagara Falls is one of the great natural wonders of our planet. And we’re going to have at the same time, concurrently, one of the great celestial events of our lifetime,” Diodati said. “It’s two natural phenomena happening and overlapping. And I think it creates a critical mass of curiosity.”
Niagara Falls, N.Y., Mayor Robert Restaino said he’s expecting tens of thousands of visitors to crowd into the best viewing spots at Prospect Point and elsewhere in the Falls.
Huge crowd expected
Restaino and Diodati both said the crowd should be far larger than the numbers who saw Nik Wallenda cross over the Falls on a high wire in 2012, the largest event to date at the Falls. Tens of thousands on the American side, and more than 100,000 on the Canadian side, watched that evening.
Diodati said he spoke to an American documentary crew that tracks total eclipses and they said to expect eight or nine times the largest crowd Niagara Falls has ever had. That could push the numbers along both sides of the border to more than 1 million people, Diodati said.
The Ontario city is setting up a concert and other activities to keep people from trying to leave all at once upon the conclusion of the eclipse, said Diodati.
Eclipse fans welcomed
Schools in Ontario have closed for the day. Niagara Falls, N.Y., schools were set to be open on April 8, a Monday that followed the two-week spring break, but Superintendent Mark Laurrie said he’s made the decision to close to students and assign remote training to staff.
He noted the time of the totality, around 3:20 p.m., lines up with when schools dismiss and buses are on the road.
“There’s a million people coming to 16 miles of Niagara Falls. It’s going to be gridlock here,” said Laurrie, who is on the local tourism board and has heard hotel rooms are going for $600 or $700 a night for April 7 and April 8.
“We know this is once in a lifetime. We knew that we needed to do something,” Free said, noting they’ve booked guests from as far away as Japan and England. Seneca Gaming is hosting family-friendly community events outside its Niagara Falls and Salamanca properties and another party catering to adults at its Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in Buffalo, she said.
The Maid of the Mist doesn’t yet know if conditions will allow it to open by April 8 but the company hopes it can, spokesman Kevin Keenan said.
Savor, the restaurant operated by the Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Culinary Institute, is hosting a Space Dinner on April 6 billed as a “gastronomic journey through the cosmos.”
And Sky Dive the Falls, based in Youngstown, is offering the chance to skydive before, during or after the totality.
“Make no mistake,” the company states on its website. “Niagara Falls will be a ZOO the day of the eclipse.”

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