Controversial city map to remain as is for now

The tourist brochure map that is handed out to visitors by Tourism Prince Rupert, apparently won't be hauled back to the printers for a makeover any time soon.

The map which has been handed out for the last four years, highlights a section of the downtown core that ends just as a traveller heading west on 3rd Avenue reaches Seventh street, leaving those businesses further down the road off in a shadowy looking portion of the map, exiled to the fringes of all the potential cruise ship excitement.

It's a situation that raised the ire of one local businessman who took his case to city hall last week at the regular Monday council meeting. At that meeting Vince Amante had called for the maps to be collected and redone, providing inclusion for his coffee shop and other 3rd Avenue merchants left off of the "Exploration Guide".

While Bruce Wishart of Tourism Prince Rupert is left to wonder what all the fuss is about four years later, the Mayor offers up his sympathies to the affected businesses, but it would seem that is about all that will be offered.

No timetable was provided for an upgrade to the maps, or if the barrens west of seventh street will ever be included in future editions.

‘Cruise map that sparked controversy a fixture for four years’
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Pages one and three

The compact map that is currently handed out to cruise ship passengers that was debated by councillors last week has been in place since 2004, the initial cruise ship season.

Referred to as the "Exploration Guide," Mayor Herb Pond said the map is simply a snapshot for those passengers who want a quick idea of what Prince Rupert is about.

As reported in the Daily News on Friday, some businesses beyond Seventh Street on Third Avenue West downtown are not on the map and have felt left out, but that does not mean tourists will not wander there, or find other methods of finding out what Rupert has to offer, said Pond.

"It became apparent early on that there needed to be a set of tools to get people moving through the community," said Pond.

"People were walking up the hill (to Mariner's Park), looking around, and turning back."
Back in 2004, Prince Rupert set up ambassadors in an effort to get the cruise ship passengers moving through town, but it became apparent that more needed to be done.

"They said we needed a map that outlines a basic map of the city, but not everything," said Pond. "It was worked out with the cruise ship industry."

Tourism Prince Rupert (TPR) then got involved and put together a small Exploration Guide - something small and simple that gives the majority of cruise ship passengers a taste of what they can find downtown. The guide was funded 100 per cent by participating members of TPR - meaning, by businesses.

And by all accounts, Bruce Wishart, executive director of TPR, said these maps have worked out well and have been beneficial to the downtown and Cow Bay businesses, and he wonders why the map is suddenly being questioned four years later.

"For the past four years, these brochures have been distributed to the vast number of cruise ship passengers who want a snapshot' of Prince Rupert during their brief time here," Wishart said. "At the same time, I think this map has drawn a lot of business to parts of Rupert that would not otherwise have seen (these) passengers."

Cruise ship passengers who are interested in seeing a map of the entire area of Prince Rupert are invariably led by ambassadors over to the visitor's centre, where they can get a map of the entire city, including the outskirts like Butze Rapids and Port Edward.

"The more adventurous passengers who want to get out there ... of course we accommodate them," said Pond.

Pond said he's sympathetic to those businesses who feel they've been left out, but that the map for cruise ship passengers has to remain at basically the same size, in keeping with the parameters set by the cruise ship industry.

"Our ultimate goal is to make sure next year we have more cruise ships, and to make sure the cruise ship companies have a favourable impression of Prince Rupert," he said.

At the same time though, Pond wants to make sure that all businesses continue to have a voice in what goes on when cruise ships make their regular stop in town.

"It isn't always necessarily fair," he said. "But we would like to see as many businesses benefit from this as much as possible."

According to TPR's Bruce Wishart, TPR is supported by an annual grant of $65,000 from the city, similar to the investment they receive every year from tourism businesses.
Last year, TPR collected approximately $120,000 in additional hotel room tax revenue.