Mixed year on tap for cruise ships
Maine ports are preparing for another busy cruise ship season while keeping an eye on looming federal fuel emission regulations that could dampen business. So far, cruise lines are expected to deposit 262,667 passengers on shore in 2011, a loss of about 6,200 passengers compared to last year. The exception is Portland, which anticipates a jump of about 5,140 visitors; on the flip side, Bar Harbor expects to see 13,475 fewer passengers in 2011 than in 2010.
Portland is feeling the benefits of its new megaberth, which will be complete by July. The new pier can accommodate gigantic ships previously unable to dock there, boosting the city’s passenger count this season to 84,000. Bar Harbor, meanwhile, is trying to buoy its cruise business by extending its season and attracting more family-oriented ships, like Disney’s cruise line, says Town Planner Anne Krieg. Those cruise ships tend to sail during summer school breaks, rather than the fall as most cruises do.
Since 2008, Portland’s cruise ship visits have doubled, generating some new jobs and maintaining others. But the industry’s economic impact has been incremental rather than dramatic, even as economic studies predict sizable impacts.
A 2008 report by University of Maine economists Todd Gabe and James McConnon found that cruise ship passengers spend between $81 and $110 when they disembark. But in Portland, some downtown business owners have questioned that range, observing that passengers tend to buy souvenirs rather than luxury goods, and they are so well fed on the ships that they don’t eat much at restaurants.
Rockland, too, has shown ambivalence. Officials there worried that increased cruise ship traffic could overwhelm municipal services. This fall, Rockland councilors backed away from a contentious proposal to limit cruise ships after the business community protested.
Most ports will likely remain at current visit levels for the next couple of years, at least until expected new International Maritime Organization fuel standards go into effect, predicts Amy Powers, the director of CruiseMaine, which promotes the industry. The proposed regulations call for reduced sulfur in ship fuel starting in 2012 and more stringent caps set for 2015 and 2020, and it is uncertain what the impact on the cruise ship industry will be.
Regardless of what the future holds, many merchants in Portland are buoyed by the promise of thousands more tourists on the streets this year, according to Janis Beitzer, the executive director of Portland’s Downtown District.
Storeowners often open their shops early to welcome ships’ passengers, thus extending hours for their staff. Beyond these extra hours, Beitzer explains it is difficult to calculate how much cruise ships affect job creation. The UMaine report estimates between 130 and 180 seasonal or full-time jobs in several sectors would be created to accommodate 90,000 passenger visits. “[The cruise ship industry] is great and fabulous, but it is part of our big tourism season,” she says. “[Businesses] are hiring for the season anyway, and it won’t require a major adjustment for them.”
For others, the effect has been more tangible. Portland Discovery Land and Sea Tours saw its boat-and-trolley-tour revenues jump 20% last season, after increasing by 10% the year before. In response to the demand, Kathy and Bill Frappier bought a fourth trolley last year from Molly Trolley in Ogunquit and hired an additional driver. “So the past 10 years we have definitely had growth, and a big part has been from the cruise ships,” Kathy Frappier says.
Molly Trolley owner Jamie Bradish says that the rising number of cruise ships traveling up the Northeast coast has been good to his 30-year-old business. With the trolley order from the Frappiers, and orders up in Boston, Bradish has been able to hold on to his current staff through the recession.
Cruise ships also mean more work for longshoremen, the dockworkers who tie up ships, secure gangplanks and load items on board. Jack Humeniuk, who works in Portland for the longshoremen’s union and Ports America, a national stevedore company, says he has hired three additional people in the last two years, bringing his crew up to 10. With an average hourly wage of $24, and an average day lasting up to eight hours, the longshoremen are guaranteed a healthy seasonal income. “The more business we get, the more work they get,” he says.
Harbor pilots, the specially trained pilots who guide vessels in and out of local harbors, also look favorably upon cruise ships. The Penobscot Bay & River Pilots Association, based in Searsport, has four full-time pilots, and last year started contracting a fifth pilot to help during the autumn cruise ship season, according to Captain David Gelinas. Ten years ago, fees from cruise ships accounted for only 10% of the association’s earnings, he says, but have grown to more than a quarter of the company’s revenue. An average ship might pay about $2,000 for a harbor pilot’s services, and last year, the association pilots serviced roughly 263 vessels, according to Gelinas.
The growth of the association’s membership overall, however, has been only about 3% per year for the last decade, due to variations in the international marine industry, says Gelinas. Cruise ships have helped provide the association pilots with steady income to counter those changing markets.
In Portland, Patrick Arnold, the director of operations for the Maine Port Authority, says ship traffic as a whole has been declining in the city harbor because there are fewer incoming petroleum vessels; the cruise ships have made up for some lost business. “It might sustain jobs during those times when jobs would [otherwise] go away,” he says.
Courting tourists
While a chorus of marine and tourism-related businesses cheer increasing cruise ship traffic, others worry about the long-term consequences of courting more megaliners. Chris Cutshall, who owns Odyssey Whale Watch in Portland, says the city is being overzealous in its efforts to lure ships. “[The ships are] coming here because it is a cute, quaint walkable city with a working waterfront. It is not ... Disneyland,” he says. “Then all of a sudden it becomes that.”
Cutshall says he doesn’t sell many whale watches to cruise ship passengers because most are eager to stretch their legs on land. In his view, land-based travelers spending several nights in a Portland hotel are the more desirable visitors, because they eat meals at restaurants and buy gifts to lug home. He worries, too, that the more desirable tourist might be put off by throngs of cruise ship passengers. “There is this automatic conclusion that people downtown are a good thing, but they’re only a good thing if they’re spending money,” he argues.
Portland’s goal is to double the number of visiting ships to approximately 120, which is about how many now stop at Bar Harbor. This benchmark could possibly inject between $21 million and $30 million into Portland’s economy, according to the UMaine report.
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