After no season last year, Wrangell started 2021 with hopes of as many as 20,000 tourists coming to town this summer aboard cruise ships of varying sizes, with capacity of between 40 and 700 passengers. With the loss of larger vessels, and some smaller ones, however, the maximum ship capacity into town has fallen to under 2,000 this summer.
"The actual number of cruise visitors to Wrangell will likely be much smaller than capacity due to protocols and restrictions for COVID-19 safety measures,"Carol Rushmore, Wrangell's economic development director, said in her report for Tuesday evening's borough assembly meeting.
UnCruise Adventures, which plans to resume Alaska operations of its several smaller ships this summer, notified the city last week that it would bypass stops in Wrangell this year, only changing passengers in Juneau and Ketchikan as it sails around Southeast, Rushmore said.
A spokeswoman for Seattle-based UnCruise confirmed Tuesday it "will not have official port calls in Wrangell"this summer.
"The cruise season, even for small ships, seems to be dwindling by the day,"Cyni Crary, Nolan Center director, said in her report for the assembly's Tuesday meeting. "We can expect continued low visitation of the museum and lower sales volumes in the gift shop."
However, "the local community ... is ready to 'get back to life,'"Crary reported. "The Nolan Center has an incredibly robust lineup of events scheduled throughout the year."
John Taylor, who operates Summit Charters, had depended on cruise ship passengers for more than 90% of his business in past years. After nothing last year, he said this summer looks to be a dismal repeat. "I've had zero (reservations),"he said Tuesday.
Some Canadians have contacted him, asking if he could pick them up after they come down the Stikine River and take them back to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. Taylor said he has emailed the Canada Border Services Agency to ask if he could make the trip, and is waiting for a response.
"Some is better than none,"he said.
Canada has kept its border closed since last year in an attempt to stem the spread of the Coronavirus. The closure, and Canada's decision to block cruise ship traffic through its waters, are making it nearly impossible for anyone but air travelers to visit Alaska this summer.
More than 21,000 cruise ship passengers arrived in Wrangell in 2019, according to a May 2020 city report.
Almost 20,000 travelers came to town in 2019 by air, state ferry and private yacht, according to the report, and it's those independent travelers that the community's visitor industry is counting on this year.
The question for charter boat operators, Rushmore said, is whether "it is financially viable for them to operate"with fewer paying customers.
There is hope, said Brenda Schwartz-Yeager, of Alaska Charters and Adventures. "What's really a glimmer of hope ... is the independent travelers look really strong"in July and August.
But there is a downside to those strong bookings for two months, she said. "Everybody wants to come now, but they all want to come at the same time,"said Schwartz-Yeager, who has been in the business 32 years.
She explained early summer bookings are weak, in particular because of fishing closures to protect Stikine River king salmon runs. "We just lost our May and June,"she said of charter customers who would have come to town for kings.
"My whole season is condensed into July and August pretty much,"she said.
And while she had been hoping for some cruise travelers, waiting for them had a downside, she said. "We were trying to be ready for them (cruise ships) if they could put it together,"including turning away other reservations and holding out slots for ship passengers.
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