Tourism

This week is the 21st annual Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, put on the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines. Hundreds of visitors come to town to witness the gathering of eagles on the Chilkat River for a late salmon run. This year, the foundation is allowing the public in a place where they haven’t before — the aviaries where the foundation’s feathered residents live.

“So here’s where the public has never gone before!” said Raptor Curator Chloe Goodson as she led a small group of people into the collection of wooden sheds where eight owls, falcons, hawks and eagles live Tuesday.

Hans, a Eurasian Eagle Owl, squawked as the group stood in front of his aviary. Before this week, a visitor to the eagle foundation would only see Hans if he was taken out of his mew by a trainer and brought into the foundation for display.

“So many people wanted to see all of the birds,” said Eagle Foundation Executive Director Cheryl McRoberts. “When we tell them we have 12 birds there and they only see two on perches here and two eagles, they want to see them all. It’s something people were not able to do before.”

Back in the aviaries, Goodson leads the group to Sara, a great horned owl perched in the corner of her aviary. Like a lot of the raptors the eagle foundation houses, Sara has a disability that means she can’t be released into the wild.

“She was probably hit by a car, like a lot of our other raptors, and sustained permanent wing injuries,” said Goodson. “And that’s why she’s here.”

Sara used to be one of the birds that the trainers could hold on their gloved arm and take in the museum to educate visitors. But she’s not comfortable doing that any more. Goodson says the new tours are especially important for birds like Sara.

“Because they aren’t getting out on a glove and presenting in the museum, so it makes it so we can have as much education value as possible,” she said.

Goodson says in some cases, the eagle foundation would have to give their educational birds to other centers if they weren’t able to display them to public.

“Yeah, we would definitely have less birds if we didn’t open up the mew space.”

The tours could also help bring in donations. Boston resident Betsy Delorenzo was one of the first members of the public to see the raptor aviaries. She says she was considering making an “adopt a bird” donation to the foundation, but she hadn’t met many of the raptors until now.

“I think I’m sold on Hans,” she said after the tour. “He just has so much personality.”

DeLorenzo came to Haines this week for the eagle festival. She says she had never seen an eagle in the wild before.

“And now I’ve seen hundreds. It’s been amazing,” Delorenzo said. “They’re beautiful. It doesn’t even look real, it looks like a painting almost.”

McRoberts says there are a lot more eagles gathered along the Chilkat this year than there were during the festival last year.

“One person counted 55 eagles in one tree,” she said. “It’s crazy.”

The eagle festival events, including the aviary tours, will continue through the week. Events are listed at baldeagles.org.

Port community leaders worry next summer’s Alaska Marine Highway System schedule will be as unreliable as this summer’s.

Budget cuts and mechanical breakdowns left many of this year’s passengers stranded, dropping destinations or switching to air travel. Town leaders say that hurt tourism, especially small-town excursions, restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts.

During Wednesday’s schedule teleconference, Wrangell Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said she’s being asked whether it will happen again.

“It’s just so critical from an economic standpoint for our businesses and communities that if we have all these cancellations in July and August, it’ll just be disastrous,” she said.

Small communities dependent on the Alaska Marine Highway were hardest hit, since they had fewer alternatives.

Pelican Mayor Patricia Phillips said officials need to have backup plans when ferries break down.

“It’s essential to reschedule canceled service due to mechanicals or scheduling changes. We have freight out here waiting to ship out, so it’s important to reschedule that service,” she said.

Pelican isn’t in the draft schedule, though officials say it will be. But it, Sitka and many other communities will see reduced service .

The schedule is a worry for more than Southeast. Prince William Sound, for example, faces significant service cuts with its fast ferry tied up next year.

Alaska Travel Industry Association President Sarah Leonard said a third of her 700 member businesses are in ferry ports.

“The changes to the schedule last summer resulted in a 14 percent decline in non-resident travel on the ferry. And members told us that they lost thousands of dollars in business due to the rebookings and cancellations,” she said.

Alaska Marine Highway officials said they’re doing their best to design a schedule that can be maintained.

That’s the reason for the deep reductions proposed for next summer, which reflect a $25 million budget cut.

Transportation Department Deputy Commissioner Mike Neussl said everything depends on legislative funding.

“There’s always risk and uncertainty there. I will do my best in testifying and communicating that it’s important that we lock that schedule in and fund the schedule we publish,” he said.

Neussl and other ferry officials say they’ll make some changes in the draft schedule for next summer. It should be complete in December.

Ride the Ducks amphibious tours in Seattle will remain suspended until at least January. That was the bottom line from an update about the ongoing investigation of the tour company involved in a deadly crash on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission is one of multiple agencies scrutinizing the Ride the Ducks operation. In a briefing to the commission Tuesday, the state’s lead investigator said his team is still analyzing maintenance records and has another round of physical inspections to do before delivering a report next month.

An attorney for Ride the Ducks said they are fully cooperating and have no complaints about the progress of the probe. But attorney Pat Buchanan also wanted to convey to the state panel a sense of “urgency” about allowing inspected vehicles back on the road.

“We have 130 employees,” Buchanan said. “For the benefit of getting those 130 employees back to work again, urgency and time is just of the essence.”

Buchanan said whenever Duck tours resume in Seattle, the jobs of driver and tour guide will become two separate positions. The company is also redesigning its tour routes to avoid the Aurora Bridge.

WUTC Assistant Director of Transportation Safety Dave Pratt declined to go into any specifics about what the state investigation has uncovered or whether new safety measures might be imposed on Ride the Ducks. The tour operator will have an opportunity to contest any adverse findings.

In late September, Washington state regulators took emergency action to suspend Ride the Ducks’ operating permit in Seattle. This happened in the wake of the Sept. 24 collision in which a World War II-era Duck vehicle slammed into a charter bus carrying international students from North Seattle College to an orientation. Five students were killed and dozens of people in both vehicles suffered injuries.

Clipper Navigation, another Seattle-based passenger ferry and tourism company, recently wrote Washington Gov. Jay Inslee in support of rapid re-opening of the Ride the Ducks operation. Clipper Navigation’s CEO Merideth Tall said her company refers thousands of customers to Ride the Ducks.

“Every day Ride the Ducks is forced to close operations, it is increasing the likelihood that they may never reopen their doors again, due to loss of trained staff and revenue,” Tall wrote while acknowledging “the need to inspect the vehicles, its operation and the route.”

“Alaska Airlines, our ‘hometown’ airline, has suffered accidents in the past, even in spite of an extraordinary culture of safety,” she continued. “But they were allowed to continue operating.”

Coincidentally, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report Tuesday about September’s deadly crash. The NTSB report summarizes an account of the accident given by the driver of the duck vehicle. The 54-year-old driver told investigators he heard “a loud ‘bang’ as his vehicle experienced a mechanical failure at the left front axle assembly, causing him to lose control.”

The NTSB report said metallurgical examination of the axle components along with other potential causal factors is ongoing. Both the state and federal probes are focusing on whether or how Ride the Ducks of Seattle completed an axle housing modification recommended by the manufacturer.

Alaska gets close to 2 million visitors a year,and more and more of them are visiting the Arctic Circle and beyond. That’s what a large audience at this week’s Alaska Travel Industry Association convention in Juneau heard during a “Tourism in the Arctic” panel discussion.

Richard Beneville is Nome’s new mayor. He also owns his own tour company, Nome Discovery Tours.

“I’m going into my 24th season,” Beneville said.

He said Nome attracts tourists for many reasons – its sport fishing, hunting, “and birding. Oy gevalt! Birds! A hundred-and-seventy migratory species that come through May 15 to June 15. We just had the cranes go out. You could look out and see 100,000 cranes in different formations. Very exciting.”

Nome usually gets between 8,000 and 9,000 tourists a year, said Beneville. Tourism has remained steady, but there has been a change.

“The first questions used to be about gold and dogs. Now, the questions are about environment, what’s happening with the Bering Strait, how does it look for Nome in the future? So my clients are very aware of what’s going on,” Beneville said.

Next summer, the number of tourists to Nome will go up. The Crystal Serenity will spend 32 days traveling from Seward to New York via the Northwest Passage. The 1,000-passenger ship will make a stop in Nome. The cruise is being advertised as the first luxury ship to travel the Northwest Passage. Fares range from $22,000 to $120,000. It’s fully booked.

The Arctic is hot right now. President and CEO of Explore Fairbanks Deb Hickok said the state has become a prominent player in Arctic discussions, most recently highlighted by President Obama’s visit.

“Alaska, as the only U.S. state included in the Arctic, is now in a special position to leverage opportunities in the Arctic,” Hickok said.

Tandy Wallack, owner of Circumpolar Expeditions, says Arctic communities need more infrastructure to increase tourism and economic development. She cited the relocation of Kaktovic’s runway as an example.

“The present runway is built on the beach so this one is in higher ground, hopefully will help with the fog and more flights will be able to get in and out. Obviously that will allow more visitors to come into the village. But more importantly, additional air service is going to benefit the village,” Wallack said.

Brett Carlson, co-founder of Northern Alaska Tour Company doesn’t necessarily think more infrastructure is needed, especially anything that could turn the Arctic into a Disneyland.

“That’s just not the vision I see for Alaska’s Arctic. I think, generally, the infrastructure is there. The reason you’re going to come to Alaska’s Arctic and the reason Alaska’s Arctic is a continually rare travel experience in the world is it’s so unlike the rest of the world,” Carlson said. “If you wanted all those modern amenities, you could go to thousands of places in the world.”

Carlson said his company commits to honoring traditional culture when bringing tourists to communities like Anaktuvuk Pass, Barrow and Kotzebue.

“If you can put visitors in someone’s home or in front of somebody in an authentic way where they’re not a tour guide, they’re just a person talking about their life, (it’s) a moving experience,” Carlson said.

Although Carlson admits there’s a struggle between tourism and authenticity.

Richard Beneville isn’t worried about tourism changing Nome, a community of 3,700 residents. He says when the Crystal Serenity unloads its 1,000 passengers, likely in a rotation of smaller groups, Nome will be ready.

“Nome is famous for Iditarod and Nome is famous for throwing a big party for so many people and I want to use that community feel for this ship because without it, it’s not going to work as well as it could,” Beneville said.

As tourism and other industry in Alaska’s Arctic grows, Beneville said he expects more people and more traffic to come through Nome. But he’s confident, Nome will remain Nome.

They’re hard to miss. Most of them wear matching red jackets. Many carry around identical ship-issued polyester backpacks, juxtaposed by their designer genuine leather rolling suitcases. They’re usually only in town for a few hours, half a day at most, enough time to walk the length of Front Street, get bused around the outskirts of town, and be back to the port by dinnertime.

Cruise ship passengers are an increasingly common sight during Nome’s summer. But unlike the tourists that flood the streets in March for the Iditarod, passengers aboard ships like the Bremen, a German cruise ship that passed through Nome earlier this month, a majority of them are European and know very little of what Nome has to offer. In fact, many only know the town for its role in the Last Great Race.

Waltraud, a passenger from Nuremberg, Germany was quick to admit that she only knew Nome for the Iditarod. While it’s her fourth time aboard the Bremen, it’s her first in Nome. Waltraud explained she and her husband like to travel to colder climates, visiting remotes places like the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen to see polar bears. They’ve also sailed all the way down to Antarctica to see penguins.

The Bremen will sail across the Bering Strait to the Russian port of Provideniya, where the ship’s itinerary suggests passengers could see whales, seabirds, walruses and seals. It will then sail down the Kamchatka Peninsula, through the Kuril Islands, and eventually dock at Japan’s western coast after more than three weeks at sea.

While Waltraud and over 100 other passengers are beginning their trip aboard the Bremen, many have reached Nome at the end of their journey and are crossing paths over lunch at Old St. Joe’s Church.

“We did, by ship, the Northeastern Passage from Tromsø to Nome and it was just great, it was just great,” said Susan, a Swiss passenger. She is also not a first timer aboard the Bremen though it was her first time in Nome.

Susan recounted her journey with a smile across her face, adding “we liked the tundra, the flowers and the animals. We saw icebergs and moose and a lot of fishes. It was great.”

So why are so many Europeans choosing to set sail through the Arctic?

Andrew Mew, a vessel agent for Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, thinks history has a lot to do with the popularity of Arctic cruises among Europeans. “I think it’s a combination of, well the fact that wealthy Europeans have been trying to do the Northwest Passage for about the last six hundred years,” explained Mew.

He says that the emphasis of leave time and the value of travel in European society are other factors that account for the large numbers of European cruise ship passengers that come through Nome.

But, as Mew suggests, recent activity in Alaska may lead to more visits by American tourists.

“With the president’s visit up here, with America taking the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council there’s been more discussion of the Arctic, at least in the United States,” Mew said, adding “I would expect that might produce a slight jump in U.S. passenger interest in the Arctic.”

Next year might see more than just a slight jump in American passengers passing through Nome, as the English-speaking cruise ship the Crystal Serenity will make call to port here next August on its way up to the Northwest Passage. While most of the cruise ships that come through Nome carry about 150 passengers, the Crystal Serenity will have over 1,000, nearly tripling the number of cruise ship passengers that Nome is used to hosting in one summer.

While it will be the first passenger ship of its size the traverse the once fabled and elusive Northwest Passage, the Crystal Serenity is just another sign that tourism is expanding and diversifying in response to the rapidly melting Arctic.