Haines tourism survived a topsy-turvy 2016, with the total number of visiting cruise ships down slightly and the disruption of ferry service turning the summer into a season of question marks.
The number of cruise ships that visited Haines during the May to September season was 22 for 2016, compared to 24 last year. As a result, the number of passengers also dropped slightly, slipping from 42,515 for last year to 41,685 for 2016.
“We had a good year,” said tourism director Leslie Ross. “People predicted that we’d have a down year, but that didn’t happen.”
And the news for 2017 is better.
Next summer’s state ferry schedule offers regular direct service between Haines and Skagway, allowing Haines residents to make same-day roundtrips. The most number of same-day Haines-to-Skagway service days will be June through August, with slightly less regular service on the shoulder months of May and September.
But the route will be largely serviced by the LeConte and Fairweather, smaller ferries.
In early summer 2016, state cuts in ferry service to and from Skagway drove RV and car visitors away from Haines, causing anxiety for local business owners.
AMHS ferries running between Haines and Skagway are a crucial part of the “Golden Circle,” a 400-mile loop connecting Whitehorse, Skagway, Haines and Haines Junction. The loop is a popular tourist route that’s been part of tourism marketing here for decades.
But Alaska’s budget crisis slashed $16 million to the marine highway’s $108 million budget, hitting service between Haines and Skagway particularly hard. With slashed services, some people began calling the famous route the “Golden Horseshoe.”
In June 2015, AMHS ferries made 64 trips between Haines and Skagway. This June, that number dropped to 41, including connections to the towns that had to be made through Juneau. On many days, there was a consistent line of cars at the terminal, many of which didn’t get on the ferry. There was a backlog of traffic getting in and out of Haines.
“There were struggles with the ferry,” Ross said. “The state budget cuts of the last two years meant that two days a week we didn’t have a ferry and three days we didn’t have a connection to Skagway.”
But a campaign by tourism officials in Haines and Skagway, including a letter to Gov. Bill Walker and a social media blitz, meant that ferry service returned seven days a week between Juneau and Haines and two runs weekly between Haines and Skagway.
“It was great to see such a great impact to our efforts,” Ross said.
In early summer, however, businesses that cater to travelers in independent vehicles and RVs suffered. Joyce Town, owner of Oceanside RV Park, took several measures to get guests to stay longer, such as crab-feed potlucks on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
But business eventually picked up. “We were just about the same as last year, maybe a little up,” Town said.
While RV park bookings rose nearly 10 percent over 2015, parts and service sales were slightly down, by 2.9 percent from the previous year. “We almost made it to last year’s number for parts and service, just $3,000 down, so that’s not too bad,” she said.
Fred Shields, owner of the Wild Iris gift shop, said he couldn’t complain about 2016. “I’m up just a little bit, but up just a little bit means staying even,” he said.
A 2014 winter tourism study paid for by the Haines Borough found summer tourism in Haines “trending downward” and local border crossings in a five-year decline.
“The rubber-tire traffic suffered from high fuel prices,” said Shields. “We haven’t recovered from that. Five or six years ago, it started to fall off. Now cruise ships are a big part of my business.”
In 2016, two fewer cruise ship stops meant slightly fewer visitors. For the summer season of 2016, cruise ship passengers arriving in Haines dropped by 830 passengers.
The number would have been lower but Haines rebounded in September, the last month of the tourist season, drawing 7,938 cruise ship passengers for the month compared to 3,333 for 2015.
However, thanks to the initiatives to bring in more water traffic, several new cruise ships will dock in Haines in 2017. Ross offered the following breakdown for new cruise ship visits: Seabourne Sojourn, 8; Grand Princess, 3; Radiance of the Sea, 1; National Geographic’s Lindblad, 16; and The World, 1.
For 2018, UnCruise Alaska is expected to make 18 or more visits to Haines, Ross said.
The number of vehicles traveling southbound across the Canadian border into Haines was up slightly in 2016 over the previous year but it was not clear whether that translated into more visitors. Through October, 21,012 Haines-bound vehicles passed through the border, compared to 18,854 for the same period in 2015.
Northbound vehicles through September 2016 totaled 35,037, up from 31,232 for the same months in 2015.
Overall passenger statistics were not clear in information provided by the borough.
Monthly numbers for June through August doubled, according to borough statistics.
“Even though Alaska Marine Highway traffic was down, we still had a good season. Perhaps people who couldn’t get the ferry were driving,” Ross said.
Looking to the skies, Haines suffered a disruption of air service with the departure of one carrier in 2015. That was good news for Alaska Seaplanes, which saw its passenger numbers grow.
“We had dramatic growth this year because of the closure of Wings/Seaport,” said Carl Ramseth, general manager for Alaska Seaplanes. The replacement company, Wings of Alaska – Fjord Flying Service, is a smaller outfit that has only a limited flight schedule into Haines, so Alaska Seaplanes has flown to capacity and even added flights, Ramseth said.
Wings-Fjord Flying did not report its passenger numbers, making a comparison of airport traffic numbers problematic.
For those curious to see how much state cutbacks have affected ferry passenger numbers, the jury is still out. Ross said passenger statistics for ferry travelers would not be reported until January.
“I know that everyone wants numbers, to see the return on their investments,” Ross said. But she added that it’s often hard to parse the numbers.
“For example, when you look at cars crossing the border, it’s hard to determine how much of that is local traffic. Or with the hotel numbers, did we have construction in town or is it all from tourism? Sometimes we just don’t know.”
According to a 2011 McDowell Survey, some of the last statistics available, Haines had 96,000 visitors, a figure that did not include Alaska residents. Each summer visitor spent an average of $152 per trip, totaling $14.6 million.
For their part, winter visitors spent $5.4 million, with an average per-person spending of about $600. The boon for the local economy from year-round winter and summer visitors was $20 million, according to the McDowell Survey.
In 2015, the last year statistics were available, Haines ranked eighth of 11 Alaska ports in total cruise traffic with 42,500 visitors.