After a disastrous year, Niagara's tourism industry is about to face a new hurdle to try to overcome.

The U.S. State Department plans to raise passport fees.

The department says demand is growing for the document, while the price for producing more secure, high-tech passports is rising.

The new fees, which could come into effect in mid-March, mean U.S. passports for adults would cost $135, up from $100. Among other fee increases, passports for American children under the age of 16 would climb to $105, up from $85.

That means U.S. passports for a family of four would cost at least $480.

"It's just another impediment to try and be successful in the tourism industry," said Niagara Falls Tourism chairman Wayne Thomson. "The impact is, in my opinion, substantial. There seems to be some kind of effort in the last 10 years to try to keep Americans at home with the idea of staycations and the passport problem."

Thomson said the latest roadblock to the tourism industry follows on the heels of the economic downturn, unseasonably cool and rainy weather last summer and the H1N1 influenza outbreak, which devastated travel late last year.

Since June 1, Canadians and Americans have been required to carry a passport or other secure documents to cross the border.

After the new passport rules came into effect, travel to Canada from the United States quickly fell by double digits, according to Statistics Canada.

Agencies such as the parks commission say Americans, its largest market, have become a tough crowd to attract for a variety of reasons, one being the launch of passport requirements.

Arlene White, executive director for the Binational Tourism Alliance, said the state department's decision will only make it more challenging for tourism agencies to do business.

"With the economy still extremely dodgy and everyone trying to recover, the last thing we need is an increase to the cost of travel," said White.

She said the alliance is currently doing a study, which among other things, is asking people how passport requirements have impacted their decision to travel.

"We're waiting to see what the impact is and if we do need to make an incentive program to actually pay for people's ID. "Just having an ID doesn't make people travel again, but if costs are going up, there may be some sort of incentives we can offer.