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Ken Smith/Turnagain Times Kelly Bender, General Manager for Prince William Sound Glacier Cruises, stands on the dock to where the two day cruises operate. She reports a strong year in sales despite higher fuel costs. |
By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
With gas prices nearly double from last year, many businesses braced for a slow summer in tourism and business in Whittier where the summer season can make or break many of them. And by all accounts, it was a good year.
The best litmus for tracking summer visitors to the Western gateway to Prince William Sound is measured in the flow of traffic through the Whittier tunnel, and those numbers appeared to be slightly down this year from last summer.
Gordon Burton, Dept. of Transportation Facilities Manager of the tunnel, reported that the numbers show a decrease in vehicles passing through the tunnel.
“Maybe it’s a combination of higher gas prices and other things,” Burton said. “In August the numbers were down 10 percent.”
Burton said those numbers aren’t significant compared to the 20,601 round trips that month compared to 23,015 last year in August. He also cited the fact that last year was a record year for the tunnel. He said May was down 6 percent in round trips, June and July were down 7.5 percent.
“I think the weather was a factor along with gas prices,” he said. “This was certainly not the worst summer. The worst summer was the year before last, and I think the weather was factor in that. Even with the bad years, we’ve had an average annual growth of 4.5 percent.”
Burton said there appeared to be a lot of new people heading to Whittier this year. People that normally go to Seward seemed to be taking the shorter trip to Whittier.
“There were more small boat owners coming through in May,” he said. “But small boat owners went down a little when gas prices were on the way up at their peak.
“I think the tunnel’s an excellent reflection of what’s going on in Whittier,” he said. “Whether they’re spending their money in Whittier, I couldn’t tell you, but as far as visitation goes, the tunnels a very good measure.”
Day cruise businesses are among those most affected by higher gas prices. Kelly Bender, General Manager of Prince William Sound Glacier Cruises in Whittier, said remarkably their numbers were up this summer.
“We’ve had a very good summer both our motor coach and the two cruises,” she said. “The price of fuel was absolutely a burden for us, but it didn’t keep people away.”
Bender said the average gas bill for a day cruise was about $3,000 per trip, almost $1,000 more per trip than last year. To offset the increased fuel costs, she said the company added a $5 per person fuel fee, a trend she expects to continue next year.
“We already decided to raise the price of the tour from $129 to $139,” she said, “and apply the same fuel fee. With the fuel fee, we can change the price when needed.”
Bender said reservations for next year are already up for group requests, and they continue to receive more foreign travelers, especially from Korea. She said they also saw more independent foreign travelers.
“I think we had an all round really good season this year,” she said. “This season was up from last year. I believe people were really committed to the tours already before the fuel prices went up.”
Brenda Tollman, who has been operating her Log Cabin Gift shop in Whittier for 19 years also said business was good, nearly the same as last year.
“The fuel prices didn’t really affect me because the majority of my customers are over 50 years of age,” Tollman said, “and those are the people that go on vacation who aren’t concerned about the price of fuel or food. I think the people most affected by the fuel prices are the younger people with families.”
Kayaking is big business for several operators in Whittier. One company, Honey Charters, did report a change in attitude with the kayakers due to increased fuel costs.
“We did okay with the large groups,” said Dean Zimmerman, a first year deck hand for Honey Charters, which operates two boats, one that holds 18 kayakers and a smaller boat that can transport six.
“We’ve actually had a good season revenue wise,” said Pete Heddell, owner of Honey Charters. “It’s been a different year with fuel costs, people seemed to be more selective in what they were doing. I think kayakers were taking more advantage of the share a ride program than in the past.”
Whittier Boat Harbor reported similar numbers as last year, based on daily moorage fees. The harbormaster’s office reported that the numbers in July were within $500 of last year, but that was also due to the fact that more commercial fishermen were coming over from Cordova because of the slow run of salmon on the Eastern side of Prince William Sound.
Whittier Boat and Tackle owner Rob Cone-Clark said his business was good too.
“In my business the customer pays for the fuel,” Cone-Clark said. “It seems to me that there’s a lot more smaller boats than usual with four-stroke engines. I was down in business April through June, I didn’t send out anybody, and I usually do. My first trips were about four weeks later than the previous year due to the colder weather.”
But Cone-Clark said he had his biggest July and August since he’s been in business. But he also has more boats this year.
And he said, he’s looking forward to another good year next year.
“I’m not looking to sell,” he said.
Marilyn Williams, owner of Portage Glacier Lodge, also had a good summer.
“My summer if September holds, will come in a little bit better than last year, which is shocking,” she said, “because I figured with gas prices and all, we wouldn’t see the road traffic, but the road traffic and bus traffic has helped.”
Williams said she also saw more local people coming from Anchorage and nearby communities.
“Visitors have been coming this way,” she said.