With the 2008 Cruise season set to get underway in a month, Shaun Thomas of the Northern View has reported that there may be some setbacks along the way to 2009 and beyond.
Rumours have circulating around town for the last few weeks that one of the major lines calling on Prince Rupert is set to pull out of this market, a threat that was confirmed for the Northern View by a Port Official on Sunday.
The un-named line, provides for a weekly port of call in Rupert and would most likely be one of the more well known names that have started to arrive at Prince Rupert’s dock over the last few years. No details were provided on what may be behind the threat to end this port on the itinerary, or if there is anything that could be done to change their mind in a short period of time…
It would not surprise me that a large line that stops here is thinking of stopping…
The line may be changing to Victoria or Campbell River… More for folks to do in the south.
Some of the stops here in the rain can be pretty sad for the passengers…
The powers that be do need to work on improving the experience here… Likely it is passenger surveys on board that is causing the line to rethink Rupert stops…
I think rotation of port stops is also a natural part of the business… I always thought the cruise ship thing while being good was more hype than anything else…
It will be interesting to hear the confirmation of which line is leaving…
i think if my memory serves me correctly , that the same thing happened in the 70’s when we lost the cruise ship business then. It didn’t help that the dock burnt down either!
There used to be more to do that is true, the first year worked well as there were all those vendors in mariners park. but the City got greedy and wanted $75 per day. That is a lot of money for people to pay not knowing how much you will make.
Have a co - op started similiar to the Ice House Gallery not as structured, but many more vendors would come out. Have tents set up for the rain, like the ones from the Fire Dept the big ones. Perhaps the co op could rent the tents in town for a nominal fee, and some of the co op members could go into the empty store fronts. Dress up the windows, dont have to spend a lot of money to make it look nice.
It’s my understanding that we lost the cruise lines stops in the mid-80’s thanks to a change in maritime laws that made it possible for ships to make only one stop in a BC port enroute to Alaska destinations…
Now, given the option between Victoria (lots of shopping,some good all-weather sight-seeing,etc) or Rupert, I can imagine most of the tourists would pick somewhere they can spend their money at most any day of the week. Rupert is great for the most adventerous sorts who might be into trekking when the sun isn’t shining but how many cruise ships are catering to those who really want some adventure where they might have to risk a little discomfort along the way?? I was very unimpressed the days I wandered around town when the cruise ships were the last time I was up there-I realise some folks take the big boats to do some sincere looking around but mostly I just heard a lot of kevetching in the shops those days…and the sun was shining for most of it!!
It’s always amazed me how in a town such as Rupert, where retailers have been through some extremely tough times, that the streets can be littered with people while all of the stores are closed. This community , as a whole, has not been overly accomodating to the cruiselines. Just building a fancy cruise dock and scatter charter operators everywhere will not guarantee success. You can’t fault anyone for not developing anything new for such a seasonal industry but I’ve found it odd that existing retailers have not tried harder to capitalize on this opportunity.
The mall was always open late on ship nights… but 3rd Avenue was not. I understand that it might not have been very busy some nights… but no one is going to be spending any money in a store that isn’t open!
u needed to get out smartass people from the ship were not spending in stores here in rupert as much as the city wanted us to think, I was out every day the cruise ship came in I seen people in the stores walking out with nothing except maybe a trinket or two, what I did notice people buying when they went back to the boat was liqueur, and candy.
people going to Alaska are going to wait and spend their money there, and on their way back they might spend some more in our community; go and ask business owners in cowboy or third Ave that were open during the day if it was worth being open in the evening if people are not going to buy from your store…
I seen the boat people in the mall I seen some in your store, I seen them in Zellers and I seen them In extra food I seen them with their junk food and their liqueur not much else. and this year with our stronger doller im sure we will see less spending from the boat people…