Almost 33,000 visitors are expected to step off a ship or a plane this summer in Wrangell — more than in any year since 2005. But continuing that growth and building up the town’s tourism economy will require more side excursions and other attractions for cruise ship passengers and more overnight accommodations for independent travelers.
The community makes its money — jobs and taxes — when tourists find goods or services to buy in town. “The visitor sector will need to make sure it has the capacity to provide sufficient tours to visiting cruise ship passengers,” according to the borough’s latest Wrangell Visitor Economy report, prepared by Juneau-based Rain Coast Data.
Wrangell is increasingly popular with smaller cruise ships, generally up to several hundred passengers each — not the 3,000- or 4,000-passenger, 16-deck behemoths that call on Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. But two ships with room for about 2,000 passengers each are scheduled to stop in Wrangell in 2024.
“The focus of Wrangell tourism on higher-end, limited-entry boutique tours will need to expand and new types of shore excursions must be developed for the community to take full advantage of ships with higher passenger numbers scheduled … in 2023 and 2024,” stated the report, which was released March 17.
“Visitors are likely to spend $7.1 million in Wrangell during the summer of 2023, as long as local businesses are able to develop excursions with sufficient capacity to meet the needs.”
That $7.1 million generates about 100 jobs in the community — 10% of Wrangell’s total employment — the report noted.
“In 2023, current projections are for 44,680 total passenger arrivals in Wrangell via airplane, cruise ship and ferry — of which 32,930 are expected to be tourists,” according to the report.
Though more than 90% of those visitors will come by sea, independent travelers by air spend three times as much in town per day than cruise passengers — $568 versus $178 — the report estimated.
With the closure of at least three bed and breakfasts in town the past year, Wrangell will have about 85 overnight rooms available after the 18-room lodge, formerly known as Cedar House Inn, reopens under new ownership as the Sourdough Lodge. The reopening is currently scheduled for next month.
That’s about the same number of rooms as a decade ago, creating a potential shortage as the town looks to build its visitor economy.
The community needs to determine its true capacity — how many visitors it can handle — said Kate Thomas, the borough’s newly hired economic development director.
“We certainly need to bolster our tourism options,” she said of ensuring that visitors find activities they enjoy, particularly as the town looks to grow its visitor industry.
The borough has hired a marketing coordinator to help with that. Matt Henson has lived in town about a year, Thomas said. He has spent the past six years “working in the world of marketing with independent businesses and artists,” developing plans and promotional materials for events and concerts, according to a hiring announcement by the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau.
“I do believe that Wrangell is capable of expanding in the tourism sector,” said Caitlin Cardinell, executive director of the Stikine River Jet Boat Association. “I see a lot of opportunities.”
However, building up the visitor economy does not mean changing the town. Cardinell, a member of the Convention and Visitor Bureau board of directors, said she prefers “maintaining Wrangell as that working port community.”
The cap on visitors to the Anan Wildlife Observatory and limited overnight accommodations are the primary reasons for a lack of tourism industry growth among independent travelers, the report pointed out.
“The most popular visitor destination is Anan Creek, known for its world-class bear viewing,” the report read. “A third of all summer tourism-related spending in Wrangell is from travelers visiting Anan. However, admission to the site is carefully managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and the number of visitors is limited to 60 per day.”
Cardinell also noted that Wrangell “has a deeply rooted Indigenous culture” to share with visitors.
The Wrangell Cooperative Association is advertising to hire a tourism coordinator. The job would include hiring storytellers, dancers and performers for Shakes Island tours, scheduling with cruise lines for performances and tribal house tours, and setting up a cultural center gift shop for the summer tourism season, according to the WCA job notice.
Nineteen ships are scheduled to make 135 port calls on Wrangell this summer, with capacity to bring almost 30,000 passengers to town if all of the vessels run full. Last year, with a higher-than-normal vacancy factor as the cruise industry was recovering from the bleak COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021, about 16,000 passengers came to town, according to the visitor report.
Already, cruise line schedules for next year indicate a gain of several thousand more passengers.
An estimated 2,700 visitors will arrive by air this summer and a minimal 220 tourists aboard state ferries.
“The number of ferry passengers traveling to Wrangell has been on the decline since the 1990s, but recent drops have been remarkably steep, falling from more than 7,000 disembarking passengers in 2013 to just over 1,500 in 2022,” of which less than 300 were summer tourists, the report counted.
“While once a focus of Wrangell’s tourism sector, ferry traffic has fallen to a point that it is no longer a significant part of the local visitor economy.”
Significant reductions in service, reliability issues due to mechanical breakdowns, state budget cuts and higher fares have decimated state ferry travel the past decade.
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