Patrick Keyes has worked in the travel and tourism industry since 1994, following a spell as a newspaper reporter and editor. It was while working at a small history museum in his native western New York when he discovered the possibilities of the industry. A representative from Visit Buffalo came in and explained what it was they did.
Credit: Rainbow Air Tours
“I was kind of just amazed,” Keyes recalls thinking. “I had no idea how the industry worked. And so, as I got into that and saw the scale of what they were doing, it really kind of grabbed me.”
He has since worked for other museums, hotels, a destination managment organization, and ran a regional cultural tourism program. For the past three years, he’s been sales and marketing manager for Rainbow Air Tours in Niagara Falls, New York. Rainbow Air Tours has been in business for more than 30 years, providing helicopter rides and unforgettable views of one of North America’s top scenic attractions. Keyes tells Group Tour about all Rainbow Air Tours has to offer.
Q. How did Rainbow Air Tours get started, and what do you offer now?
A. Rainbow Air, as the current iteration, started in 1995. Until last year, basically all the company was was a ticket window and helipad with two small, four-passenger helicopters offering tours over Niagara Falls. And it still did very well, but there were no amenities—nothing like that. What we have done in the last year is a complete reinvention of the company and the concept of what it is that we’re about. Last year, we opened our new Rainbow Air Tourism Center on July 4 weekend, and we basically went from a ticket window to a 30,000-square-foot building—kind of a radical change. We also were a seasonal operation; now, we are open truly every day of the year, other than Christmas. So, we have our brand-new building, and we have two brand-new, seven-passenger helicopters that vastly enhance the helicopter experience in terms of a capacity, comfort, quietness—everything about it is just completely different.
Q. What do groups experience on a helicopter tour?
A. They are seven-passenger helicopters, and we have two of them, so we can stagger the flight so we’re basically taking off almost every five minutes. We can do an entire coach in an hour, because we have the capacity to do that. And the tour, you’re basically spending about nine minutes in the air over the falls, because our new location is right next to the Niagara River, where the rapids basically start before the falls. You’re over the water in a matter of seconds. You’re over the falls in about a minute, and then the whole time that you’re in the helicopter, essentially, you’re over the falls. You’re getting that view from all these different points.
Q. Are the tours standard or can they be customized?
A. It’s a standard route because we’re working with two different governments. We have to have a very clear and specific flight plan filed with both of them. It’s very regimented in that respect. Now, that said, one of the things we’re doing this year that’s different is we’re going to be flying at night. They illuminate the falls every night, and then from spring through fall they do fireworks displays, and we are going to be able to fly literally over top of the fireworks shows.
Q. What activities are there for groups on the ground?
A. We have all the amenities that you want. We have large restrooms; we have a great retail space; we have a brand-new Heritage Gallery, where there is a pretty broad array of historical displays and different hands-on activities and stations; and the Video Theater, where people get a really good sense of what Niagara Falls is all about. The other thing we have is our Virtual Reality Gallery, and the attraction in there is called Niagara Virtual, which is really an amazing experience. Basically, we have 11 simulator units in the gallery, and what you do is you get into the simulator, and virtually, you climb into a helicopter. You get a little bit of a virtual helicopter ride. At 300, 500 feet, you jump out of the helicopter, and you then take full control of where you fly—all over, under, all around Niagara Falls. It’s an amazing experience.
Q. What do you love most about working for Rainbow Air Tours?
A. It’s the uniqueness of it. We are the only helicopter operator on the U.S. side of the falls. We offer the only way to get the full view of the falls that people want. It’s just a really cool experience. The thing we hear from almost everybody is, first of all, I have never yet seen anybody in the three years that I’ve been here say, “Oh, you know what? I didn’t like that at all.” Everybody is smiling ear to ear. Everybody just says, “That was great. I can’t believe that I got to do this.”
By Todd Kortemeier
Main Image: Helicopter over Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls; Credit: Rainbow Air Tours
