With no ships on the horizon, the Campbell River Indian Band is rethinking its cruise-ship business and may try to recast it as a niche operation that would serve a single cruise operator, says the business manager for the facility.
“The band is considering another business model,” Darryl Anderson, business representative for the Wei Wai Kum terminal, said on Monday. “Instead of offering your services to [multiple] companies – in that case, everybody gets the same experience – at the other end of the spectrum, could you offer something that’s unique to a given cruise brand?”
The band is struggling to find a viable operating strategy for the Wei Wai Kum terminal, which opened with fanfare in 2007 as the world’s first aboriginal-themed cruise-ship terminal but has failed to meet expectations.
The $24.5-million facility, built with nearly $10-million in federal funds, drew four ships in its first year, five in 2008 and one pocket cruise ship – and a total of 162 passengers – in 2009, and no ships in 2010.
The facility has no ships booked for the 2011 cruise season and, at this point, no indications of any calls in 2012.
Cruise lines typically book their schedules more than a year in advance, based on factors that include costs, customer demand and port attractions. The billion-dollar B.C. cruise sector – which depends heavily on foreign-flagged vessels traveling to Alaska – reported a steep drop in passengers and sales in 2010 compared with 2009, as consumers cut back and some cruise lines steered clear of Alaska as a result of a head tax on cruise-ship passengers.
This season, which begins in May, is expected to be stronger, with Disney Cruise Lines using Vancouver as its home port for Alaskan cruises – a multimillion-dollar infusion – and Nanaimo opening a new cruise-ship terminal. Alaska has also reduced its tax on cruise-ship passengers.
The $22-million Nanaimo facility is on track to welcome its first ship in May, said Nanaimo Port Authority president Bernie Dumas.
The federal government’s decision this month to extend the deadline for stimulus spending to October 31, 2011, from March 31, 2011, provided “a little breathing room” but the project was on schedule for the coming season, he said.
For the most part, cruise lines have yet to announce their 2012 itineraries, but an early announcement by Norwegian Cruise Lines has left Prince Rupert in the lurch.
Norwegian this month announced an Alaskan itinerary that deploys a different ship on the Alaska route and changes the company’s Canadian stop from Prince Rupert to Victoria.
American shipping regulations require foreign-registered ships that are visiting multiple U.S. ports to include a foreign port on their itineraries, or to stop at a foreign port to take on or drop off passengers. Cruise ships are almost always foreign-flagged.
The Norwegian Star makes a weekly stop in Prince Rupert and, other than two “repositioning” cruises at the beginning and end of the season, is the city’s sole cruise business. In 2012, it will no longer stop in Prince Rupert.
Cruise lines are still working on their 2012 itineraries and Prince Rupert hopes to land more business, said cruise development co-ordinator Phil Westoby.
Since the city began operating its cruise terminal in 2004, the sector has accounted for half-a-million passengers and $40-million to the local economy, he said.
The Wei Wai Kum terminal was projected to generate $11.4-million worth of economic activity per year for the region and more than 200 jobs.
The Nanaimo Port Authority consulted extensively with cruise ship companies in designing and constructing its facility, Mr. Dumas said.
“Our terminal has been designed and signed off by the cruise industry,” Mr. Dumas said. “We built it to their specifications. … I don’t think Campbell River did that – and there are some challenges with their location versus the Inner Harbour here.”
Nanaimo recorded 6,800 cruise-ship passengers on six vessels in 2010.
