City officials, community members, and local business owners met at the Nolan Center last Tuesday evening, Dec. 17, to discuss Wrangell's tourism industry. This meeting was to cover the recent tourist season, as well as projections for the next one around the corner. The city also wanted to hear people's concerns and priorities when it came to Wrangell tourism.
"It's a community discussion because ultimately our docks and our Front Street are community assets," said Mayor Steve Prysunka, opening the meeting. "We want to bring everyone along on this journey as we move forward with the tourism industry and where hope to get it to."
Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore gave a brief presentation on the tourism industry as it currently stands. An estimated 20,019 tourists visited Wrangell in 2018 and spent about $5.1 million. This is an increase of 6 percent from 2017, and 68 percent since 2010. Of those, cruise ship passengers made up 75 percent of the total number of visitors. According to graphs Rushmore presented, however, cruise passengers spend the least amount of money. The 2,449 tourists who came to Wrangell via airplane spent the most money per person, at $650. However, since cruise passengers make up such a large percentage of the total number of tourists, they spent the most as a group at $2.5 million, or $169 a person.
The final numbers are not fully in yet, but Rushmore presented a graph stating that Wrangell has seen about 18,683 cruise ship passengers in 2019. The projections for 2020 put next season's cruise tourists at 19,114. According to a draft schedule for the 2020 season, Wrangell will be receiving 74 total stops from cruise ships from April to October of next year. According to Rushmore, Wrangell's cruise industry is growing, but in smaller increments compared to other communities in Southeast Alaska.
There were three main concerns from the public that were voiced during the meeting: Cruise ship scheduling around the Fourth of July, how a growing industry might affect the annual fireworks show, and how much tourism was too much.
Being one of Wrangell's biggest celebrations, many people in Wrangell and from out of town enjoy celebrating the Fourth of July for an entire week. Many of these events, such as the greased pole competition, scrap fish derby, and canoe races, have traditionally occurred at the city dock. The 2020 draft schedule shows several ships wanting to stop in Wrangell during Fourth of July week. However, telling the ships that they just can't visit Wrangell during this week is not an option. The ships have their own schedules to keep. The ships are trying to get into a variety of different ports across the region, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen explained, and Wrangell serves as one such destination but also as a repositioning port between bigger stops.
"The cruise industry is extremely fickle," she said. "It doesn't take much for a cruise company to get their nose out of joint about something and to go away."
Understanding these concerns about cruise ships interfering with Fourth of July celebrations, city officials did say they were trying to find ways to minimize any impact they could have. The ships that will be visiting the week of the Fourth will not be docked in town, but anchored farther away. Passengers will then be lightered into town, which should keep the numbers of visitors in town on those days a bit smaller.
Another concern voiced during the meeting, about the annual fireworks show, was more of a misunderstanding on the part of the public. Prysunka explained that, last year, the fireworks show was moved from its traditional location at city dock to Volunteer Park because of permitting and safety issues, not because of any cruise ships. As some readers may remember, last year's fireworks show was cancelled. Again, this had nothing to do with the cruise ships, but a drought the city was experiencing. Prysunka added that they had considered doing the fireworks out on a barge, but this would be very costly. Where and when to hold the fireworks show would be an ongoing discussion, he said.
As to the final concern, about how much tourism was too much, city officials did not have a definitive answer. Von Bargen said that they do not really have any goal for what they want Wrangell's tourist numbers to look like, that is where community input would come in.
"There is no intent of anybody in Wrangell for us to become Ketchikan, Juneau or Skagway" she said, referencing some of the larger and busier cruise ship destinations in Southeast. "Never, not in any circumstance ... The second thing in regard to that is Wrangell does not have the capacity to become those communities because we do not have the infrastructure."
One such way they were looking for community input around the tourism industry was by the creation of Tourism Best Management Practices or TBMPs. These are a set of guidelines that the Wrangell Convention and Visitor's Bureau is wanting to put together for the city. These would be agreed upon by tourism-related businesses in Wrangell, voluntarily, to keep tourism from interfering with day-to-day life in town as much as possible. The guidelines would also serve as a way for businesses to handle confrontations between each other more effectively. Rushmore said that the Convention and Visitor's Bureau was looking at the TBMP guidelines from Juneau as a good example. Some of the guidelines they might put together could cover timing of tour boat departures, parking locations, and other topics. After the meeting, Rushmore sent out an email saying the CVB would be holding a workshop on the TBMPs on Monday, Dec. 23 at noon.
Other topics covered in the town hall meeting included how to encourage yacht owners and other independent travelers to visit Wrangell, declining ferry passenger numbers, and other work that the CVB does.
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