Charting the course for a better cruise experience

Last weekends "brainstorming" session at Chances provided the opportunity for local businesses and residents to work together to try and find a way to increase the experience for cruise ship visitors and perhaps to lure a bit more of their money into the community.

During the course of the afternoon's discussions a number of concerns were raised, from the hours of operation of local businesses during cruise ship visits, to signs and activities required to make the port attractive to the cruise ship lines, a number of which will be deciding in eight months whether Rupert will remain on the port of call list.

The competition along the BC Coast has increased over the last couple of years with both Campbell River and Nanaimo recently gaining attention from cruise ship lines eager to learn more about their communities and what they have to offer.

It's with that competition in mind that the local stakeholders gathered to explore new initiatives or how to improve on the current ones. The Daily news featured details of the meeting in Tuesday's paper.

New ideas floated for improving the cruise experience
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Pages 1 and 2

Tourism stakeholders have been putting their heads together to look for ways to anchor the cruise ship industry off the North Coast.

.

Sunday afternoon saw a fair gathering of business community members and the general public at Chances to discuss how Prince Rupert can better accommodate and entertain cruise ship tourists this summer.

During the course of the winter, city council and Tourism Prince Rupert talked about how they could increase their return on investment in tourism, particularly while the cruise ships are in town, and therefore felt it would be a good idea to have a public meeting to also hear a range of ideas from the community.

"I want to stress there are no bad ideas, but maybe some likely ideas or unlikely ideas," said Bruce Wishart at the start of the discussion.

Mariners Park was identified as a central point to focus on cruise ship tourist attractions, and Mayor Herb Pond said anyone interested in becoming a vendor or putting on entertainment there this summer can visit city hall for an application form and for further information.

Another point made was that proper signage is still needed to let visitors know where they can and cannot go, such as encouraging cruise ship passengers to use the Centennial Walkway that connects Atlin cruise terminal to Kwinitsa Station, which Mayor Pond admitted was a shortcoming on behalf of the city.

Also brought up at the session was the notion that in order to generate tourism dollars, businesses actually need to be open for business during the hours that passengers are walking through our downtown core.

The possibility of having businesses start their day later and remain open longer on cruise ship nights was mentioned, since the amount of sales lost in the morning may be minimal in comparison to those gained in the evening. Mike Slubowski of the Northern View said he was disappointed in the number of downtown merchants that showed up for the brainstorming session, despite personally giving invitations to many of them.

"I hear many merchants complaining every day, so it disappoints me when I only see a few of them here," he said. "When business owners complain that cruise passengers aren't spending money in their store, I ask them how many of our tour companies or fishing charter operators go into their store? If you don't have those people as your customers, they aren't going to tell their clients about your business."

Having knowledgeable taxi drivers was raised as another necessary component to generating a larger catchment area for tourists willing to explore beyond the downtown core because many tourists look to cab drivers for advice on where to go and what to do. One member of the public made the point that some business owners harbour a notion that cruise ship passengers have an obligation to spend money at local stores, without actually looking at what they are selling or the manner in which they're selling.

"We can't bully people into buying things or shopping in stores," said the participant. "They don't have any more obligation to buy something from our shops than we do when we're walking down a street in Vancouver."

Another idea raised by several people was fully utilizing the performing arts community, whether having dancers and performers right downtown or creating the opportunity for passengers to be bussed to the Lester Centre for the Arts.

"I think if we have eight months left until decisions are made by the cruise lines about where to stop next season, there's a definite call to action here," said Robert Stromdahl. "I think we should look at getting ahold of our community groups, creating some kind of rotating schedule and getting as many people out there in their First Nations regalia or Filipino costumes, and have a real festival experience down there. There's going to be a 30 to 50 per cent decrease in the number of gillnetters here this year, so we have to embrace this and we have to react."

It was also said that Prince Rupert should do more to highlight our walking trails and the area's natural beauty. One participant stated that even if those types of activities don't generate enormous revenue for the community, we should be just as concerned with giving tourists a great experience as we are with taking their money. The idea of creating and identifying sites for buskers and other impromptu entertainment around the city was also well received, as was the idea of Second and Third Avenue stores hosting a tent in the Atlin terminal parking lot to promote their businesses to cruise passengers.