Niagara Falls hotels and businesses try to capitalize on gay marriage tourism

When New York State legalized gay marriage almost two years ago, many in Niagara Falls saw the potential to rekindle its image as the "honeymoon capital." Most business owners and observers agree that the wedding industry experienced a surge right after same-sex marriages became legal but that the pace has since slowed. "The initial surge, I think, is cooling," Mayor Paul A. Dyster said. Still, this doesn't mean that long-term benefits have disappeared, either in Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Both cities have handed out more marriage licenses in each of the last two years than in the final year before the law passed. New York was the sixth of 13 states to allow same-sex marriage Niagara Falls is still benefitting from the afterglow of the positive image as the site of the state's first same-sex weddings, Dyster said. The images from that group ceremony -- including having the falls lit up in rainbow lights -- continue to have an effect that the mayor likened to Nik Wallenda's nationally televised tightrope walk across the falls last year. It made a "big splash" for the city immediately and gave others a favorable image to remember. "It's difficult to track, but that doesn't make it any less real," Dyster said. While some wedding and tourism-related businesses saw a spike in sales, others barely saw a blip. In terms of hard numbers, the one measure that is tracked easily