Ketchikan is building for a booming cruise industry

While the State of Alaska may have just introduced a tax on the cruise industry, which has the doom and gloomers suggesting that they’re biting the hand that feeds them; but if that’s the case, there isn’t much indication that things are going to slow down in Ketchikan.

The city to the north of Prince Rupert and one of the destination spots on the Alaska Cruise calendar is busy spending 38.5 million American dollars upgrading their three present cruise ship berths and watching a private company make plans to build a fourth all to accommodate the larger vessels currently sailing the Alaska routes.

With that much capacity available in Ketchikan it’s expected that they’ll pass the current rate of 800,000 cruise ship passengers per year. In comparison the Prince Rupert cruise industry, still in its baby steps phase only attracts about 100,000 cruise visitors a year.

With four docks in place, the prospect of having four cruise ships calling into the Ketchikan port has locals hopeful of bountiful times in the on shore spending of their visitors.

It will be with interest that Rupertites watch the situation to the north, will those ships all stream to the four berth hub of cruising, or will some still wish to wander into our neck of the woods and check out our simple but effective little port. The mayor urges us not to suffer from a case of Dock envy, as our neighbours build bigger and better. Time will tell, but they’re certainly planning for a huge turnout to the north, building a monster home, while we still work on the landscaping to our modest bungalow...

The Daily had a report on the plans of Ketchikan in its Tuesday edition.

WAVE OF OPTIMISM GREETS ALASKA’S NEW CRUISE DOCK
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Pages One and Three

The city of Ketchikan, Prince Rupert’s nearest neighbour in Alaska is spending $38.5 million U. S. to upgrade its three cruise ship berths and a private company is planning on building a fourth.

The development will double the number of large ships the city will be able to handle at one time, from two to four, and increase the amount of traffic floating by Prince Rupert’s door.

“The city is doing a major redevelopment of its port to make sure the facilities we have can handle three vessels at once and a private party is building a fourth berth and then the city will lease and operate it,” said Bob Weinstein, Ketchikan Mayor.

Ketchikan is undergoing the redevelopment in order to accommodate the larger Panamax size cruise ships currently sailing Alaskan waters.

Currently the older dock facilities in Ketchikan can only handle two Panamax cruise ships at once and given the cruise ships generally operate on a weekend-to-weekend schedule, ports tend to see their stops lumped together over one or two days.

This has resulted in a need to accommodate a larger number of ships stopping in Ketchikan at one time.

“We did a long-range study and we feel we need four berths right now,” said Weinstein.

Ketchikan currently sees 800,000 cruise ship passengers a year, more than eight times what Prince Rupert accommodates with its one berth. The city lost 100,000 passenger visits between 2005 and 2006 because of its lack of facilities.

We have been as high as 900,000. One of the reasons we are down is because the need to upgrade our facilities,” he said.

The citizens of Ketchikan agreed to fund the $38.5 million US upgrades using port revenue bonds during a referendum called earlier this year.

By using port revenue bonds, the project won’t affect taxation levels for property owners.

Ketchikan differs from Prince Rupert in that the city of Ketchikan itself operates the port facilities and collects the revenues from them, while in Prince Rupert those facilities are operated by the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

Nearly half of that money will be spent on the Ketchikan Uplands Development to ease vehicle and passenger traffic through the downtown core.

Meanwhile, Survey Point Holdings is proposing to build the fourth berth a quarter of a mile north of the three existing berths and lease it back to the city.

“It’s being built by a private party and we will lease it and use port revenues to help pay for it,” said Weinstein.

Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond said there is no need for Prince Rupert to have dock envy when it comes to their Alaskan neighbour as Ketchikan’s gain could add to Prince Rupert’s traffic.

“The effect is a balanced effect,” said Pond. “We are not a destination yet for cruise ships although we want to be and we rely on the Jones Act which requires a Canadian port of call (for foreign flagged vessels.) So more ships that entering into the Alaska theatre… means more ships going by our door. The more ships into the Ketchikan theatre give us more opportunity to entice them into Rupert area. That said, he added that all ports compete for cruise ship time.