It's a competitive business that Wrangell cannot afford to lose

It’s nothing personal, just business.

But it still hurts.

Wrangell has lost three cruise ship stops this summer to Klawock, where a partnership of Native corporations is developing a visitor destination complete with a deepwater dock, retail shops, shore excursions, walking trails and more.

Two of the corporations, Huna Totem and Fairbanks-based Doyon, are already active in the tourism industry. The third, Klawock Heenya, wants to get into the business to provide jobs and income for its tribal shareholders in the Prince of Wales Island community.

The cruise ship stopovers that switched to Klawock for June and September mean the loss of more than 2,000 visitors to Wrangell this summer, if the vessels run at close to full capacity.

For the town that had been looking forward to as many as 30,000 cruise ship passengers this summer, a drop of 2,000 hurts.

Based on numbers from last year’s Wrangell Visitor Economy report, prepared for the borough by Juneau-based Rain Coast Data, those lost tourists might have spent more than $350,000 in town. That could have generated almost $25,000 in sales taxes for the borough.

Attracting the lucrative tourist trade to town is important for Alaska communities, particularly those living with weak economies. Klawock, like Wrangell, misses the timber industry of earlier decades, and miserable salmon prices are hurting residents in both towns.

It’s not that Klawock took from Wrangell; rather, it went out and competed for its own benefit.

“It’s something that I think we’re going to see continue … and we can’t ignore that,” Kate Thomas, Wrangell’s economic development director, reported to the assembly earlier this month.

Cruise lines increasingly are looking for all-in-one destinations with shore excursions, shops and other attractions designed to keep passengers busy — and happy.

“Klawock is poised to take the very ships that Wrangell is trying to retain,” Thomas added in a later interview.

“What do we do with that,” Thomas said of the competition from Klawock. “Wrangell’s going to have to figure out what it wants.”

Figuring out what the community wants will be the easy part. Residents have expressed their preference to move the borough’s barge landing facility out of downtown, making more room for visitor attractions. And not just for cruise ship passengers, but independent travelers who spend more money on accommodations, food, river trips and sightseeing.

Figuring out who will take the lead on expanding Wrangell’s visitor experience and who will find the money and where — those are the hard questions.

Residents say in polls that they do not want to ruin the community’s charm and working waterfront personality for the sake of more tourist dollars. But for the sake of a stronger economy, the community needs to step up its game against the growing competition.

-- Wrangell Sentinel