NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Visitors are returning to the Niagara Falls area and the region, but at a slower pace than Western New York leaders would like.

Rep. Brian Higgins, D-NY-26, said cross-border travel is down 40% since June 2019.

"The president declared on national television that the pandemic was over," Higgins said. "I don't know that I fully agree with that but I do believe that we're in a management stage of it and I think lifting the vaccine requirement is the only option left for this administration."

Canada's expected elimination at the end of the month of its vaccine requirement and the use of the ArriveCAN mobile app to cross the border should make it easier for Americans to go north. However, if the U.S. doesn't take the same step, Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said Canadians and other foreign travelers important to the regional economy may still be deterred.

"The longer this goes on and the longer we don't press to make this change, people will find a different flight pattern, if you will, and if we can't recapture them, it's because we keep on delaying this," Restaino said.

Higgins said he has repeatedly pushed the Biden administration to drop its vaccine requirement, arguing the majority of Americans are vaccinated and scientific advancements, including the vaccine, have reduced the severity and duration of COVID-19.

"For the past two and a half years, no one person in the White House has been designated as a decision-maker so I am left to conclude that the only decision-maker here and the president should follow his declaration last week that the pandemic is over and lift all of the restrictions," he said.

Restaino said the lack of coordination between the U.S. and Canada regarding the border throughout the pandemic has been frustrating.