Traffic plunges at tighter borders: Hurting businesses blame passport policy

USA Today reports:

The number of people crossing the northern and southern land borders into the USA has dropped sharply since a passport requirement began June 1.

Businesses in tourism-dependent border communities blame the policy for making a bad year worse.

At Martin's Fantasy Island, an amusement park in Grand Island, N.Y., about 10 minutes from the Canadian border, "our Canadian business is way off," spokesman Mike McGuire says. Nearly one-third fewer Canadian families of four have come for discounted "Canadian Wednesdays" compared with last year, he says. He blames the recession, a soggy summer and the passport rule.