The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau met Monday, Nov. 4, to discuss potential "tourism best management practices." This is something happening in Juneau, according to Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore. The tourism best management practices are a collection of guidelines and general rules that tourism-related organizations in the city agree to abide by. It was first put together in 1997, according to the 2019 TBMP document on the city of Juneau's website, "to minimize the impacts of tourism in a manner which addresses both resident and industry concerns and enhances our visitors' experience ..." Rushmore added that the TBMP has also helped improve communication between the community, the city, and the tourism industry.
"So if there are concerns, people can call, complain, and that gets addressed within three days," she said. "So that's the idea, because tourism is growing, trying to just reach out to say 'Hey, here's some of the voluntary things that operators, service providers are willing to do, or will be doing, and if you have complaints let us know.'"
The bureau was meeting to discuss the possibility of putting together something similar for Wrangell. Juneau's 2019 document was excessive, as Bureau Member Chris Hatton described it, and Wrangell wouldn't need something so large. The name of the agreement was briefly discussed, as well. One name that was proposed by Bureau Member Brenda Schwartz-Yeager was "VIBE," or Visitor Industry Best Experiences.
This was all a preliminary workshop to begin organizing the idea, so there was not much in-depth discussion. There were questions of how people could contact the city to file a complaint and who would be handling those complaints, but the main point of the discussion was what areas Wrangell's potential "best management practices" would cover.
Some of the items brought up included sidewalk and hiking trail use, a section about cruise ships, and even the need for an agreement on where to place sandwich board signs. It was also agreed that there should be something about tour boat operators agreeing to watch their wake, as well as some etiquette guidelines when traveling along the Stikine River. Tour buses parking near City Dock and taking up space was another topic of discussion, as this has been a longstanding issue for the city.
The workshop lasted for about an hour. The bureau agreed to divide up portions of the Juneau document amongst themselves, and each person would review it and do their own research, then they would come back and start forming a draft document of their own. Rushmore added that there would be several meetings with the public before any document like this took effect. The timeline agreed upon in the meeting puts the rollout of a draft "best management practices" document by next spring. The bureau plans to meet again on this topic on Nov. 18.
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