Cruise ship season comes to a close:

The cruise ship season closed in Wrangell earlier this month. The Oceania Regatta was the last cruise ship that pulled into the city dock in 2018. According to a draft schedule from the chamber of commerce, the season will reopen in May of 2019. For Wrangell, and Southeast Alaska in general, tourism is an important aspect of life.

Stephanie Cook, with the chamber of commerce, said that 75 cruise ships visited Wrangell in the 2018 season, ranging from small size to large ships with about 1,500 passengers. This influx of people is very good for the town and its businesses, she said.

"We get people coming in here, looking at all our brochures we have for the tour boats and stuff like that, so yeah I think it definitely benefits the community," Cook said.

Other businesses agree that tourism is helpful. Hailie Davis, with Stikine River Gifts and Apparel, said that tourists have a "tremendous" effect on the business.

"They come in, there's probably like, I want to say 80 to 100 people that come in and they shop and they make the summer really worth being open," she said.

The Nolan Center relies on the tourist industry, as well. Director Cyni Crary said the Nolan Center is a popular stop for tour groups with Alaska Waters and the Etolin Bus Company. She added that tourism is vital to the center's growth, and is also beneficial for the rest of the town.

"We are greatly appreciative of our tours," Crary said. "We appreciate the economic development. It's good to get Wrangell out there."

The Stikine Inn and Restaurant is located right by the city dock, where cruise ships berth. Jake Harris said that the largest impact on the business can be felt in the restaurant. He said that on a good day, he guesses that about one out of every three passengers on a ship will eat at the restaurant. However, he said that they don't rely too heavily on cruise ships for business.

"The direct-to-Wrangell tourism and the local model are, I'd say, that's kind of the combined model that makes it work," he said.

Harris said that as things stand currently, with one ship coming in every few days, Wrangell is generally benefitting from the business. The types of cruise ships that come to Wrangell are coming for the same reason that direct tourists come to the island, to get away from "touristy" areas. People come to Wrangell for a more intimate look into Alaska, he said. However, he added that it was important to maintain a balance between letting ships in and keeping Wrangell a quiet town.

"I think that, in general, it's a good thing. There's not a lot of negatives I see from it," Harris said. "I've been here 13 years, now, and incrementally Wrangell is doing better every year. Very small steps, but it's getting there in a controlled manner, which in some degree benefits the locals more than anyone else."

While the influx of tourists is good to bring money into the area, there are a few negative aspects of the industry. Wrangell has a population of about 2,500, according to the U.S Census Bureau. A cruise ship depositing anywhere between several hundred to over a thousand tourists into town can have a noticeable effect on the number of people out and about. Wrangell Chief of Police Doug McCloskey said that tourism mainly affects the police department when it comes to traffic congestion. However, these issues are not typically major, he added. His department mainly keeps an eye on traffic and helps give directions to people.

"It [tourism] creates a bunch of congestion and issues along those lines, but it's very minor," he said.

Shawna Buness, with the chamber of commerce, added that some members of the community could see the increase in people wandering around town as a negative. Harris said something similar, that there were people in town who just want Wrangell to stay a quiet island.

Cruise ships not only bring tourists, but sometimes they also bring disease. Public Health Nurse Erin Michael said that diseases spread as people travel. She said she was unaware of specific cases where a disease was brought to Wrangell via cruise ship, but she said it was a relatively common occurrence.

"It happens anywhere ships go in. Same with airplanes," Michael said. "If you have the flu and get on an airplane, you can spread that wherever you go."

Carol Rushmore, Wrangell's economic development director, said that the city relies on the cruise ships themselves to keep their passengers healthy, and to help keep sickness from spreading off the ship. As to worries about the cruise ship industry turning Wrangell into something other than a quiet town, she said that it is possible to see growth while also maintaining a small town feel.

"The smaller ships are a really good fit for Wrangell, and I mean a really, really good fit for Wrangell, because you don't even notice that they're here," Rushmore said. "The bigger ships, of course, you see they're here, you can't miss them at the dock, but they're not even in weekly. So, for a day you will see some changes to the community but for the most part I think Wrangell is maintaining its small town atmosphere."

The cruise ship industry is growing in the region,

Rushmore said, and across the state. Cruise lines are building more ships and are looking for more places in Alaska to take passengers. In 2018, Rushmore said that Wrangell saw an estimated 16,000 tourists from cruise ships. That number is expected to rise in 2019, with a potential 21-22,000 tourists during the cruise ship season. Rushmore added that between 2014 and 2017, each passenger that visited Wrangell spend an average of $158, which the city government saw through sales taxes. She said that the cruise ships are very good for Wrangell, both for businesses and the city government, but she did say that with continued growth the community will have to face some issues in the future.

"I think if there's continued growth, as a community there are things we'll have to address, from an infrastructure standpoint or staging areas," she said. "Communication with the ships is very important, and just making sure we're able to provide the necessary services for the visitors. And not just the cruise passengers, we're looking at trying to grow the independent passengers, as well, because they actually spend more money than cruise ship passengers. We're seeing growth in that portion of the industry, as well."