You need to make your money in less than four hours!

The 2006 cruise season in Prince Rupert has reached the half way mark, and one thing has become rather clear. If you want to make your money, you have to move fast.

With the cruise lines dedicating less time to their stops in our fair burg, the entrepreneurial class in Rupert has to work quickly to separate the tourists from their dollars.

We seem to have lost two hours of shore time locally as the ships now only stay for a four hour visit as opposed to the six of last year. This makes for changes to the plans of our local attractions and will make for a rethink on how others go about servicing the industry.

It seems that our visitors want excitement and a chance to see the wildlife, and we're not talking about the bar crowd on a Saturday night. With all of those dreams of money in the bank still out there, a workshop has been planned for August 18th, where those with a plan to cash in on the tourist wave can get more info.

The Daily had all the details on the current status of the season and the plans for the future in its Friday edition.

CRUISE SECTOR’S NEW WAVE OF OPPORTUNITY
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Friday, August 11, 2006
Pages One and Two

The 2006 cruise ship season has been all about getting some more interaction between passengers and Prince Rupert in less time.

As the season has just slipped past the halfway mark, the Prince Rupert Port Authority has released its annual request for proposals (RFP) asking local tour operators and would- be operators to submit excursion packages that will be sold on all cruise ships calling on Prince Rupert next year.

The number of passengers is down slightly, said Marieke Gerlach, Business Development Officer for the port, but some of the ships, like the one that was in port on Friday, have a greater passenger capacity, meaning numbers could increase next year. But the main challenge has surrounded the fact that the port of calls for these ships – the time they are in town – has decreased from six hours to four.

“We’ve had to adjust some of our tours,” she said. “It has been a bit of a challenge,”

With shorter but more interesting excursions planned for cruise ship passengers in the future, the port is hoping to get more ideas from local tour operators going forward.

“Cruise ship passengers are interested in experiencing the destination to the fullest and want to actively explore the places at which they stop,” said the port’s Director of Business Development, Shaun Stevenson, “We are working with our community partners to ensure that we can supply a world class shore excursion program that best reflects the many opportunities Prince Rupert has to offer, said Stevenson.”
While Prince Rupert currently offers man top-notch shore excursions, feedback from cruise ship passenger exit surveys combined with a projected growth in the number of ships calling on Prince Rupert, has identified further opportunity for expansion of the tour program, said Stevenson.

“We’ve gotten some very good feedback and comments from passengers,” said Gerlach. “It’s been very positive.”

In the future, the port would like to add more people for the tours, which would ease the pressure of trying to do more in less time for the tourists, said Gerlach.

Currently, popular excursions include fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and whale watching, in addition to the city tours. Expanding the adventure tour side of things is paramount going forward, said Gerlach.

As part of its goal to build this tourism capacity in Prince Rupert, the Prince Rupert Port in partnership with Tourism British Columbia, Prince Rupert and Port Edward Economic Development Corporation and Tourism Prince Rupert, will be hosting a Tourism Packaging and Production Distribution Workshop in Prince Rupert on Friday, Aug 18 at the Crest Hotel. The three hour workshop, starting at 1 p. m. will be followed by a presentation on the 2007 cruise season, cruise related tour packaging opportunities and the process for getting tours on the cruise ship.

Anybody interested in obtaining more information about the workshop or registering for the workshop can call the port at 627-8899.

“When they come up to Alaska, they want to experience the wilderness,” she said. “Basically, (we need more) major wilderness products,” said Gerlach.

“That’s why we’re sponsoring the workshop,”

More information on the local cruise industry is available by visiting http://www.cruisetoprincerupert.com/.