It’s a few weeks early for cruise ship tourism in Juneau. That won’t stop Dan Blanchard.
Hosting a dinner aboard his cruise vessel the Wilderness Adventurer last Saturday, Blanchard, the exuberant CEO of UnCruise Adventures, had a spring in his step. He was about to take a second dip into the waters of a business proposition a decade in the making: spring cruises in Southeast Alaska.
Large Princess and Holland America ships, which can hold thousands of visitors, aren’t due in Juneau until April 30. UnCruise Adventures, whose boats hold 22-86 guests, is starting two weeks early. Blanchard calls it “Alaska Awakening.”
“It’s the whole idea of making May the new June and April the new May. We can do that in Southeast and even a little bit in South Central and Kenai. The idea is that we really want to normalize May as the main part of the season,” Blanchard said.
The Wilderness Adventurer, one of nine UnCruise vessels, celebrated the eve of its first sailing in Southeast on Saturday. Blanchard hosted a few dozen business owners and tourism professionals aboard the 160-foot boat to celebrate. Mingling in the galley were pros from tour companies large and small, legislative professionals and officials from the Cruise Line Industry Association. Gov. Bill Walker made an appearance.
Blanchard is convinced spring sailings are a win-win for the community and the industry. The number of cruise ship visitors to Juneau is expected to break records again this year at about 1.17 million, according to CLIA numbers. About 1.31 million passengers are expected next year.
Blanchard said spring cruises can help take advantage of that increase in demand. Earlier sailings could spread out the congestion of visitor foot, bus and tour traffic, relieving stress on Juneau’s roads, trails and visitor centers.
UnCruise has attempted spring cruises in Alaska about 10 years ago, “but it flopped,” Blanchard said. The company has leveraged social media and a national advertising campaign to make spring sailings work this time around.
It was easier selling berths on their early sailings this time around, Adventure Operations Manager Pam Navis said.
“We were surprised by the amount of people doing it,” Navis said. “People want to go and do something that’s different, as well. And when you can be the first ones out of the shoot that’s up there, everything’s waking up.”
The industry trend has pushed the schedule backward overtime, Blanchard said, and April sailings are just a natural extension. When Blanchard started in the tourism buiness, “We used to start the last weekend in May and business would start really coming in by mid-June,” he said. Since then, the season has extended through May, adding about 30 percent to UnCruise’s bottom line, Blanchard said.
“So for those of us in the travel industry who are starved during the winter, if we can get 20-30 percent addded on to our season, it makes a huge difference,” Blanchard said.
In a Thursday phone interview, CLIA Alaska President John Binkley said his instinct tells him the demand is there for springtime tourism.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” Binkley said, adding, “If there’s enough scale, so to speak, that can be generated and businesses can open early, it can be successful and the larger cruise lines could embrace it.”
UnCruise is confident it can get visitors to Alaska, but those visitors will need something to do once they get here. Wilderness guides, whale watching operators and tour bus companies have different business priorities than cruise lines. Things like insurance, training and tour permitting might make an April opening unfeasible for some companies.
“There are a lot of additional costs that come with that. It’s not just bringing staff on, it’s starting your insurance earlier. It’s starting a whole bunch of things up earlier, so the demand has to be in it,” said Caitlin McElhinny, operations manager for tour company Above and Beyond Alaska. “I have to look at the numbers and go ‘OK, I can cover my costs and make a profit in April.’ We’re not there yet. But we’re a unique business.”
Though April hasn’t penciled out, yet, for Above and Beyond, McElhinny said the calendar extension would be one obvious way to spread thinner Juneau’s increasing summer crowds, something she thinks the community will need as visitor numbers increase.
“We have to do something to buffer that demand unless we want to see eight large cruise ships back-to-back, which I don’t think anyone even in the tourism market wants to see that,” McElhinny said.
Gastineau Guiding General Manager Sierra Gadaire, likewise, said they haven’t yet found a way to justify opening in April, when hiking and whale watching are more difficult.
“On the hiking trails that we do, there’s a significant amount of ice and snowmelt. So we would have to offer whale watching-only tours, which isn’t exactly the gem of our fleet. And there are limited amounts of whale watching opportunities in April,” Gadaire said.
The Alaska Awakening marketing push, Blanchard said, is in its first year of a five-year plan. He hopes to use what he’s learned this summer to pitch larger boats on the spring experience. If he can rope in some larger ships, that could incentivize tour companies to get on board.
“It’s bigger, by far, than just our company. We know that, as that grows, we can go to the cruise lines and say, ‘Hey, if a boat came up just two weeks earlier, it would be a massive change for Juneau, in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Blanchard said.
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 and kgullufsen@juenauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinGullufsen.
Pam Navis, adventure programs manager with UnCruise Adventures, speaks aboard the Wilderness Adventurer on Friday, April 13, 2018, about the prospect of starting the tourism season in spring. (Richard McGrail | Juneau Empire)
Sierra Gadaire, general manager of Juneau-based Gastineau Guiding Company, speaks to the Empire about spring tourism on Friday, April 13, 2018 aboard the Wilderness Adventurer. (Richard McGrail | Juneau Empire)
