Ontario development officials, several years ahead of their U.S. counterparts in marketing the Niagara area, invited Western New Yorkers to join them Friday in promoting the region as one of the world's great binational destinations.

"We're married to each other," said John Farrow, president of the Canadian Urban Institute. "We live in the same house. The question is whether we're going to meet the international market hand in hand or go our separate ways?"

It didn't take long for Farrow and other Canadians at the "Rethinking the Niagara Frontier: A Binational Forum" in Niagara Falls to underscore how far Ontario has pulled ahead of New York when it comes to building on the economic potential of Niagara.

More than $6 billion in tourism-related projects are planned or under way; the Niagara Economic & Tourism Corp. (NET), a private agency, has been established to coordinate and pursue tourism development; and the area continues to build on the success of the Niagara Parks Commission.

"As we open our eyes and look beyond Niagara Falls, we realize we're citizens of a binational region," said Bill Connor, chief executive officer of NET Corp.

"The Niagara River is a force that unites rather than divides us. It's not such a big step to embrace the vision of an international community in the 21st century."

Farrow said that if all the metropolitan areas of the Niagara region were treated as one market, it would be the fourth largest in North America. He estimated that 8.77 million people live in the Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Rochester region.

Farrow called for participants at the forum to become "international community entrepreneurs.

"Let's not wish the border wasn't there; let's celebrate it. It's an international region that spans two countries. That's the opportunity."

Besides the tourism opportunities, Farrow said the binational character of the Niagara region makes it appealing to business investment.

Companies can benefit from the tax laws of either Canada or the U.S.; their different regulatory requirements for developing products such as pharmaceutical drugs; and their separate education and medical systems.

"If we create a region that crosses the border, we begin to create the type of tension that, if used properly, leads to the type of innovations that creates value and then wealth," Farrow said. "The goal is to be world competitive, to be world class."

Ontario began setting the stage for its aggressive approach to promoting the Niagara Region in the mid-1990s with the establishment of the NET Corp. The private corporation was established to keep economic and tourism development "at an arm's length from political consideration," Connor said.

Among the areas identified as opportunities for economic growth: telecommunications, high-technology manufacturing, agriculture, adult residential communities and most of all -- tourism.

Robert O'Dell, a St. Catherines, Ont., economic development consultant, said that while tourism was a major economic engine in the Niagara Region, statistics indicated that its share of the global tourism market had shrunk since 1988.

That's when the Canadian Ministry of Tourism decided to seize on Niagara Falls as the vehicle to turn around the decline. The arrival of Casino Niagara also helped. Visits to Niagara Falls jumped from 9.6 million in 1996, before the casino opened, to 13.4 million in 1997 and are projected to grow to more than 16.4 million in 2002.

Now, NET Corp. has been active in developing other tourism opportunities in the Niagara Region to convince visitors to stay overnight, including loop tours of various areas such as wineries and historic sites, and better signs to get people off the main highways and into the scenic back country.

Canadians said they would welcome their New York counterparts to do the same. They suggested the creation of a binational park and trail system centered around the Niagara River.

"I'd love to see a binational map that would identify links and opportunities to work together," O'Dell said.

American organizers described the forum as a preamble to a bigger conference they want to hold this fall, when issues such as heritage and cultural tourism, brownfield redevelopment, high-technology investment, transportation, trade and the environment will be discussed.

The forum was organized by the University at Buffalo and the Waterfront Regeneration Trust -- a Canadian nonprofit planning organization. Sponsors included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation and the Niagara Parks Commission.

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