Tourism lessons Kenya can learn from Niagara Falls

The Canadian part of Niagara Falls with Goat Island on the left. Goat Island is part of USA. [XN Iraki ]

It is a tourist's ultimate dream to visit Niagara Falls on the border between the US and Canada along the Niagara River. And like any other visitor to Canada, I was lured back to this nature's wonder a second time.

This was a different experience. Sit relax and read on.

Niagara Falls is about an hour's drive from Toronto, Canada's major city. It's this proximity that makes the falls such a popular spot.

You bypass small towns like Hamilton, Oakville, and St Catherine.

Greenery defines Canada but smokestacks are common on this route before wine country - there is cheap power from the Niagara River. Soon you are in the old part of Niagara by the lake as they call the town near the falls.

Not before noticing the raised road over the Welland Canal built to bypass Niagara Falls for shipping.

The canal is 43.5km and joins Lake Erie to Ontario.

Those of my generation can recall the St Lawrence Seaway in our geography. It was an export route from the industrial heartland of the US and Canada to the Atlantic Coast, avoiding the much longer route to New York. Why can't we get ships on the Tana River from Garrissa to the Indian Ocean?

The Niagara area is full of historical houses, and the affluent can't be hidden going by the houses.

The weather is an attraction, more for pensioners who take walks or ride bikes along the shores of the river.

Fort George reminds you this area was once contested between the French and British.

Who would not want to control such a region with its beauty and wealth? Britons won but French footprints remain in Quebec, where French is spoken. Canada is also officially a bilingual country.

It's not just grapes that grow here; apricots, apples and other fruits are favoured by this microclimate because of the lakes, more like Naivasha.

Once through the wine country, we stopped to admire the mighty gorge made by the river over the years and the distance the falls have receded over the years because of erosion.

The gorge is deep. You can't go to the shores- planted with trees like maple (the leaf on the Canadian flag). You have to seek gaps to see the river and the US across.

US airspace

It's like looking down the Rift Valley full of water, not lakes.

At another stop, cable cars let you admire the gorge from the air by crossing the river from one end to the other.

They say it's the only place where you violate US airspace without any repercussions. A golf course by the Niagara left my mouth watering.

Finally, a bridge across the river into the US confirms we are near the falls.

The waterfall is a phenomenon and looks new anytime you visit.

The water thunders down the two falls, the horseshoe falls are bigger on the Canadian side. Goat Island separates it from American Falls.

Visitors jostle to view the falls from many angles. This time, the water formed a mist which in turn formed a rainbow. And you pay nothing to see this nature's wonder.

This time, I got more than I bargained for. I joined other visitors in a boat that takes you next to the falls, where the water lands at the bottom.

It's "rainy and windy." And fun while wearing a polythene coat. This is the ultimate Niagara experience.

One can also admire the waterfalls from the many restaurants with a good view. You can see the falls as far away as the city of Buffalo in New York.

What are the key lessons from Niagara?

It was more than seeing what I read in high school geography.

We saw man's determination to tame nature by building canals, turning a natural wonder into a money minter, and keeping exclusion at bay.

All along the great viewpoints of Niagara River, its gorges and waterfalls, there are no charges, meaning no exclusion. It was a great lesson on how we should package our tourist sites. Focus on the "after" activities. What do visitors do after seeing Niagara Falls? They consume food, drinks, seek accommodation, taste wine in wineries and buy souvenirs. And they carry home memories of the trip and do free marketing for you.

About 12 million tourists visit Niagara per year. We are struggling to hit two million for the whole country. We are too focused on the Big Five and sandy beaches.

Why do we forget that for non-Kenyans, the Great Rift Valley is a site to behold, and fly gliders and bungee jump?

Why have we not marketed our deserts like Dubai? Tourism sites are created by weaving stories around them like Egyptian pyramids. Every visitor in South Africa goes to see a house in Soweto where Mandela lived.

Scouts founder

Where did our past presidents live? How much money has Nyeri made being the home of Mwai Kibaki and the Scouts movement founder Lord Baden Powell? And hotels are closing there!

Every county has sites that can be packaged and sold. But familiarity is the problem. Maybe our Cabinet Secretary for Tourism should be foreign to see what "we can't see."

I noted that tourism is driven by emotions, which must be evoked by history. A good example. Why does Machakos not portray itself as Kenya's original capital city?

Without weaving stories around sites, they arouse no curiosity and bring no visitors.

Tourism should be left to to the private sector, it's likely to identify opportunities more easily.

The government should supplement through building roads, ensuring security and regulations.

Where are our Niagara's? Who talks about Nyahururu Falls, snow-capped Mt Kenya, the Longonot crater, the Chalbi desert and many others? Visiting Niagara was akin to visiting China's Great Wall.

The must-places to visit in our lifetime. Try visiting them, please.