Haines could see up to 90,000 cruise ship passengers this summer, almost double the 2019 season (Corinne Smith/KHNS)
Haines could see a massive influx of tourists this summer, according to industry projections, especially via cruise ships. An estimated 76 port calls this summer could carry from 60,000 to as many as 90,000 passengers to Haines. That’s almost double the 2019 cruise ship season to Haines of 54,000 passengers, with even more traveling over from ships docking in Skagway. But questions remain around border restrictions, COVID-19 precautions and other factors. KHNS’ Corinne Smith checked in with Haines Tourism Director Steven Auch for the latest projections. Here’s part two of that conversation. Listen to part one here.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KHNS: So, can you break down that 90,000 passenger estimate for us, does that also include passengers docking in Skagway and taking a private ferry over to Haines, or just small cruise ships docking here in Haines?
Steven Auch: So that’s just ships docking specifically here in Haines, there are a couple of ships that aren’t on that schedule that we don’t have schedules for yet. But the numbers from those ships, we’re looking at ships with a capacity of maybe 175 people on the high end and maybe 10 port calls. So that number of 90,000 is not going to vary too much if that schedule happens even if we get some additional small ships. But Skagway is expecting to see 1.2 million passengers which would be a pretty significant increase for them. And of course, as you mentioned, the Haines – Skagway Fast Ferry brings a lot of people over. And so for a kind of expectation for that, traditionally we’ve seen about 5% of Skagway’s capacity come over to Haines on the fast ferry. So 1.2 million would be another 60,000 people or so.
KHNS: And so for Haines to meet that level of demand and those kinds of crowds, it’s going to be a bit of a task. What are some challenges, or ways that Haines may need to prepare for that?
Auch: It’s a great question. And unfortunately, I know it’s shocking to people but I don’t have all the answers. But some things that I kind of think about and kind of echo to people when I talk to them is, it’s really trying to think outside the box in terms of backup plans. Backup plans, in terms of staffing, backup plans, in terms of ordering supplies, those kinds of things.
I’m cautiously optimistic that we are going to see those numbers, because it certainly would be nice to have the business and everything. Obviously, though, if I was a business owner, it would be hard to plan for those numbers. Because as we said, there are still a lot of unknowns that could certainly impact and drop that number back. So if you’re a business owner, and you’re planning for this upcoming season, and you’re saying, well, in Haines, we’re expecting these big numbers, but I’m going to plan for maybe the same as 2019, or maybe even scale back a little bit from there, due to whatever constraints you have as an owner financially, or time or whatever else, certainly do that, but also kind of think outside the box.
So some of the things that I think of is, in the past, we had a whole bunch of people that would come up for the summer and work, and a lot of them would get multiple jobs. And I’m sure that could still be the case. But maybe instead of waiting for those people to come to you, maybe the business owners can reach out to each other, and openly discuss, hey, I’ve got these employees or whatever, and do more of a willing sharing approach to things to see if we can get people to help fulfill roles as best as possible. And, especially with the local workforce, who are here already, who might have a job, but could work a second or something like that, especially in a time when he might need that additional support.
And then also thinking about, when it comes to ordering supplies, we know that the supply chain industry is constrained big time right now. And the lead times for stuff are a long way out. So maybe thinking about seeing if you can work with another company in town that offers similar products or whatever that you could maybe do some additional ordering and share some supplies if need be. Or, at least see if somebody has an area to store additional stock so that you could be prepared for things. And then another thing is thinking from the customer service standpoint, if we do end up with that kind of traffic, I would imagine that at certain points, everybody’s going to be busy, and nobody’s going to have capacity. And there could be lines out the door, at each restaurant in town, for example. And so thinking about things, like if you do have a line out the door, traditionally people would just handle the guests in front of them, and take care of them one at a time. But maybe doing the additional, thought of talking to people that are in the line at the back of the line or walking up outside the store and being able to say, ‘hey, sorry, we’re pretty busy right now, but here’s maybe an alternative,’ this other place. Have you tried checking there, that kind of thing. So, instead of that, sorry, we’re closed, say sorry, here’s an alternative, just kind of thought. So I think that those things have to be thought about and have to think about training your employees to be able to handle that too, if that’s the case. So hopefully, we can do that.
The Haines Visitor Center is a good customer service spot in terms of being able to handle questions. So if you have products, services, events, anything like that any information you get to us can help lighten the load of the work that you have to do in terms of answering questions, and you can direct people to contact us with the visitor center. We’re happy to answer the emails, questions and flyers, whatever comes from that. We just need the information from everybody as far as what those products and services are or events or whatever else, and we’re happy to help share that customer service side of things for answering questions.
KHNS: So historically, what’s the distribution of visitors for Haines, between cruise ships, independent travelers, and Canadian neighbors coming from the north. What’s the proportion would you say?
Auch: Well, really the way that we look at the numbers, and the way that we can measure is we look at the cruise ship traffic, because that’s easy to know what’s coming in. We also look at the Haines- Skagway fast ferry, which is a huge number. And then we can look at metrics for AMHS (ferry) travel, air travel and road travel. So we get those numbers. Traditionally, if you want to just think about it from an easy standpoint, it’s traditionally about one third is direct on cruise ships here to Haines, one third is the fast ferry and one third is all other modes of transportation. The tricky thing about the ferry, road and air travel is all of those numbers don’t separate out, I couldn’t tell you who they are, or where they’re from. And as a matter of fact, even locals returning to Haines are included in those numbers. So the air travel data, it’s the number of people landing in Haines. So there’s a little bit of that has to be just assumed to be locals returning home, not independent travelers. But that’s kind of how we look at the numbers and the data as we have it. And like I said, traditionally, it’s around one third (cruise ships) one third (ferry from Skagway) and one third (air, road, and other travelers). But it’s varied over the years. And, for example, AMHS was in the 35,000 – 40,000 passengers per year range in the mid 2010 to 2015 ish timeframe. But over the last few years, it’s decreased significantly, not just due to COVID, but due to availability of boats and those issues. So it’s dropped down to the 20,000 range. So some of those things, impact some of those numbers as well, in terms of carrier availability.
KHNS: And what is the discussion around health and the outlook for the COVID pandemic this summer? I mean, there may be another variant that will have to be mitigated. So what is the discussion around bringing in all those people, but also making sure that both visitors and Haines residents stay healthy?
Auch: Well, there’s certainly the standard messages of washing hands and social distancing when possible, and wearing a mask and all that. There’s other than that, the thing to keep in mind is, cruise ships in particular, have a lot of requirements in terms of their guests and their staff. So in terms of cruise passengers, we know that a lot of them will be vaccinated and or tested, prior to boarding the ships and, and whatever else. As far as the independent travelers, it’s gonna depend on what the requirements are from those vessels. So AMHS (ferry), of course, is still requiring masks onboard. But there’s no testing requirements. But the rest of it is just reminding people to do what they have been told to do for the last few years. So stay safe and (social) distance if you can, and wear a mask when you feel you need to.
KHNS: Haines is very fortunate to offer a lot of outdoor activities, rafting, biking, wildlife viewing and all that, so it’s an advantage. Anything else to add today?
Auch: Well, the one other thing that I want to mention, at the Chamber luncheon (Feb 25), I thought it was a great comment, there was a presenter talking about culinary tourism. And he had said to everybody that it’s important for restaurants to remember that they don’t sell meals, they sell memories. And I think that that’s a great thought. And something to keep in mind, not just in restaurants, but in all of what we do here in Haines. All of the visitors that are coming here, they’re not just getting a meal or getting a tour. We’re making memories for them. And Haines does a great job with our friendliness and our down home feeling. And I think that if everybody keeps that in their mind too, if we get really busy, and we’re slammed, and you just kind of step back for a second think, hey, I’m not selling a product or I’m not selling a service, I’m really selling a memory to this person. It’ll remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing, of course, and allow you to remember that that’s why people come here as they get great memories when they’re here. And I’m sure Haines is going to do a great job of delivering it again, and even if we get these large numbers this summer.
KHNS: Absolutely, Haines has some incredible hospitality. Alright. Thank you, Steven, thanks so much for joining us and taking the time.
Auch: No problem, thanks for having me.
Sorry, but Skagway is NOT expecting 1.2 million visitors this year. The schedule you see online was put together before the 2019 season. Cruise ships plan many many years out. Then around the end of March, early April the revised schedule will come out. The Skagway Visitor’s Department has a much better grasp of this than Haines Tourism Department. Last year they were spot on with their predictions of how full the ships would be, etc.