With the Great Northern Salmon Classic taking a bit of a whooping of late from a number of directions, Tourism Prince Rupert provided some anecdotal observations to show that their plan for tackling the tourism crisis of this year is showing some hopeful signs.
Sounding a bit like a person tired of taking all the shots coming his way of late, Bruce Wishart of Tourism Prince Rupert suggested that those looking to see if the derby is bringing tourists to town, should only head for Rushbrook Floats to see the amount of boats taking to the waters around Prince Rupert.
Of course considering how contentious the derby seems to be of late, that might be an idea that causes more problems than it solves. One thing is certain, no amount of positive spinning is probably going to change the minds of those folks inland in Terrace, Kitimat and beyond who are feeling a tad left out of it all.
As for the local community, the Daily News did a survey of some of the businesses around town that have been impacted by the hits that the tourist season has taken thus far. They provided their findings as part of a page one story in Wednesday’s paper, you can hop along from business to business in the story below.
Difficult summer has had some bright spots
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Pages One, Three and Seven
Like the tides of Chatham Sound, tourism business in Prince Rupert has gone in and out through the spring and summer months.
Two main events have had a significant impact on tourism business in the city: the sinking of the Queen of the North ferry and the subsequent loss of bus tours and vehicle traffic, and the beginning of the Great Northern Salmon Classic fishing derby. which is starting to bring people along Highway 16 into the city.
Bruce Wishart from Tourism Prince Rupert estimates that following the sinking of the Queen of the North, the city sustained between a 50 and 75 per cent loss in business.
“What we’ve faced is the loss of the independent travelers who are coming along the highway on the circle tour, heading to and from Prince Rupert for the Queen of the North,” said Wishart.
“But with the derby only two weeks in, we have seen the beginnings of an impact which is very encouraging to see.
“The booking agencies for charter fishing are saying that the bookings are higher for August than they have been in previous years, which is very good news and the hotels are essentially overall telling us that they are beginning to see bookings that they attribute to the derby … it is looking good right now.
Wishart said that anybody wanting to see the impact the fishing derby is having on the city should go down to Rushbrook Floats where boats, trucks and trailers are lined up leading to the launch facility. He also said he’s noticed more Albertan licence plates than is usual for this time of year.
“We’re just feeling very confident that the derby is going to achieve it’s hoped for result of bringing people down Highway 16,” said Wishart.
Debbie Davis at Adventure Tours (a Grizzly bear and whale watching tour business) said that they have not been impacted at all either by the sinking of the ferry or the beginning of the fishing derby.
She says that the loss of tour buses off the ferry has had no impact on their business at all.
“To tell you the truth, we have not had a decline in our passengers,” she said “We’re in our 10th year of business and bus tours have not been a big thing for us.”
Mike Taylor who runs Seashore Charters, another tour business in Prince Rupert, said that they definitely took a dip in business after the ferry sank.
He says that according to Info-Centre statistics, business was down by 45 per cent in June and 33 per cent in July.
Even so, he has noticed an increase in business during the beginning of August and he attributes this increase to the traffic in town for the fishing derby.
“We’ve noticed a slight increase in our charter bookings and we’ve also noticed as mall increase in our tour bookings as well,” said Taylor.
“We’ve had some wives that have come up with their husbands for this derby and then they don’t want to go fishing and so they decide they are going to do a tour so we’ve got a little bit from that as well. Hopefully that will continue to increase as the weeks go on through August,” he said.
David Smook of Homework, a furniture, gifts and home furnishings store in the tourist area of Cow Bay has said that he lost some international tourist traffic that used to frequent his store and that the fishing derby hasn’t made much of a difference because he believes that kind of clientele may not be into buying the things in his store.
“Business is down but it’s not down in a way that is going to cripple me,’ said Smook.
Hotels in Prince Rupert have stood to loose the most in business because not as many tour busses are able to get here on the smaller replacement ferry sailing from Port Hardy.
“We’re the same as everybody else, we lost some tours and the reason we lose tours is because the ferries don’t join up, they don’t want to get stuck over on the island for a day (on the bus tours), they just want to go over and come back … that’s about it, everything else is about the same,” said Don Martin of the Highliner Plaza.
“We definitely feel it for sure, we’ve still got our rubber traffic and that sort of thing – just the regular tourists.
“It’s just missing the tours that are hurting us.”
The Crest Hotel was significantly hurt by the loss of tour busses after the sinking of the ferry but business has picked up somewhat since the beginning of the fishing derby on Aug 1.
“The tour part of our business was significantly affected,” said Scott Farwell, operations manager of the Crest Hotel.
“We’re not talking four or five buses, we’re talking into the 20, 30, 40 buses that have cancelled out or have had to make changes to their itinerary that don’t include Prince Rupert.
“I think there has been some general improvement… I don’t think the fishing derby is going to hurt us, that’s for sure, we’ve definitely seen some people come to town because of it.
“It’s still early, it’s only two weeks into it and as the word gets out, I think we’ll see it grow even larger.
“I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
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