The Southeast island community of Petersburg held a town hall meeting on Feb. 10 to discuss the future of tourism in “Alaska’s Little Norway.” The local borough is considering a potential partnership with a small cruise ship company and may see more tourists in coming years.
While the conversation welcomed ideas related to tourism in general —like emergency services, trails and public restrooms— much of the discussion pertained to increasing tourism, especially from cruise ships, and what that means for the community.
About 60 people attended; scores of locals offered their thoughts. And while the idea of more tourism was generally accepted, extensive testimonies stressed the importance of managing growth responsibly —balancing the benefits of tourism with local control.
A number of speakers emphasized that controlled growth protects Petersburg from potentially having more tourists than the town can handle, or “selling out” to nonlocal corporations that might take more than give to the community.
Several representatives of small local businesses explained that it’s because of the summer swell of tourists that they’re able to stay open for local patrons during the winter off-season.
“Some people have drawn point to the fact that they appreciate being able to go down to a hardware store, to a grocery store, to a bookstore, shop for clothing, etcetera. That is sustained … by tourists,” said Madeleine Valentine, co-owner of Viking Travel. “The dollars that are being spent in the town are going a lot further than just the business owners here. It’s allowing everyone the opportunity to have these amenities year round.”
Representatives from Petersburg’s chamber of commerce echoed their support for increased tourism in town. Sarah Holmgrain is the president of the chamber, the school board president, and a small local business owner.
“Petersburg is no longer just a fishing town … we no longer find a majority of our students coming from fishing families,” she said. “As a community, we are diversifying — and our economy needs to continue to change and grow.”
The local visitor industry management plan, produced by Petersburg’s economic development council, shows that the most cruise ship passengers to visit the town was about 17 thousand people in 2006; last year, that figure was less than 10 thousand people.
Pointing to that fact, Holmgrain called cruise ship tourism “an area of opportunity we need to expand and grow and just not ignore…”
“It has untapped potential to bring in more revenue. And additional revenue prevents job cuts, program cuts, and allows you and the rest of us to continue to grow, and fund the school district,” she said. “It helps small businesses grow and expand, and thereby employees of those businesses will continue to live and work here.”
Holmgrain said the chamber recently passed a resolution supporting a potential project between the Petersburg Borough and a longtime portcaller, American Cruise Lines. Each summer, they bring in a couple of small 170-passenger vessels, the American Constellation and Constitution. The company is scheduled to visit Petersburg more frequently in the coming summers.
American Cruise Lines approached the local borough last fall about a potential partnership to build a floating dock extension for their ships to use when they port in Petersburg; the company would lease part of it from the borough, which would own and could use the new infrastructure as multi-purpose. The new build could also potentially help reduce congestion at a nearby dock that cruise ships have had to share with the commercial fishing fleet.
Kristin Meira, director of government affairs for American Cruise Lines, emphasized that the dock would belong to the borough.
“I’ve heard a lot of folks ask about control tonight and … we never own the infrastructure once it’s built,” she shared. “It’s always a public facility.”
According to Meira, the cruise company and its customers are attracted to Petersburg as-is; she assured the room they don’t want to change that.
“We value what you have here. We want to be a part of it. We want to have more of a home here, and we just want a safe, reliable place where we can dock,” Meira said.
Concepts for the proposed dock extension are still in early stages. American Cruise Lines submitted a formal application to the borough earlier in February. The plan will first go before Petersburg’s planning commission and there will be a public hearing before any actionable decision is made.
As for the future of tourism in “Alaska’s Little Norway,” borough leadership expects the conversation to continue.
