Canada Sinks Travel and Tourism Icon: After 165 Years Maid of the Mist Loses Niagara Contract
OutdoorHub Reporters 02.22.12
According to multiple reports, Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company has lost its contract with the Canadian government to conduct tours and ferry passengers in the Niagara George.
Since 1846 Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company has given tours to thousands of tourists a year, millions in recent years. Three princes, two US Presidents, celebrities from Marilyn Monroe to Hugh Jackman, and King Edward VII are among her famous passengers.
Today, the sight Maid of the Mist’s blue ponchos, which its passengers don to shield themselves from the spray of water crashing down from over 150 feet above them, have become one of travel and tourism’s best known images.
Despite Maid on the Mist being awarded a 25-year contract extension in 2008 by Canada’s Niagara Parks Commission, tourists may not have that chance after the spring of 2014.
Even though Maid of the Mist’s contract had been in place for 3 years, Ontario’s cabinet ordered the Niagara Parks Commission to open competitive bids on a new contract.
After the bidding closed, Maid of the Mist was out and Hornblower Canada (a California based company) was in.
The deal will generate an estimated C$500 million in revenue for the parks commission.
For Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company it could mean its final voyage.
In a company press release, Maid of the Mist president Christopher Glynn wrote, “As a result of this decision, our business, with a 165 year history of service to tourists from around the world, may soon come to end.”
