Many Maritimers agree the Reversing Falls on the St. John River are an interesting attraction, even though they really aren’t reversing falls.
They are more like reversing rapids, which led the Saint John Regional Council to pass a resolution to change the name of the iconic site to the Reversing Rapids in 2010.
“From a visitor’s perspective, it’s really a rapids and there was a study that showed actually some visitors were confused about the possibility of a falls being reversed and their expectations were not being met when they visited it, so the name change was to help them,” says Ross Jefferson of Saint John Destination Marketing.
Hundreds of cruise ship passengers took in the sites of the Bay of Fundy Monday and some admitted the Reversing Rapids were not what they expected to see.
“I was thinking more of a waterfall phenomenon, but nevertheless, seeing this swirling changing tides is still very fascinating, but no, not what I expected,” says cruise ship passenger Peter Schilt.
“You don’t really see much of a fall going down, but the rapids certainly,” says cruise ship passenger Nicole Schilt.
Staff at Destination Marketing for Saint John say they have changed the name to Reversing Rapids on tourism material this year, except for many of the signs, but they say those will also be changed over time.
Jet boat rides are a popular activity among tourists traveling though Saint John, but Jet Boat Ride co-owner Marc Dawson says he doesn’t plan to change the name.
“Reversing Falls has been known since so long and we don’t see much publicity outside of the city to talk about it,” says Dawson.
Whether they are technically rapids or falls, those in the tourism industry say as long as tourists continue to visit, it won’t matter what the iconic attraction is called.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Dunbar
