Photo / Courtesy, Penobscot Bay Chamber
An example of the shuttle to be used in Rockland’s PortShare Promise program.
Updated: August 27, 2024
Rockland’s new port program aims to ease visits for cruise passengers — and local residents
Photo / Courtesy, Penobscot Bay Chamber
As the fastest growing of Maine’s big three cruise ports, Rockland is looking to a model called PortShare Promise to help the city and the midcoast region cope with the industry’s impact in the busy fall season.
As the fastest growing of Maine’s big three cruise ports, Rockland is looking to a model called PortShare Promise to help the city and the midcoast region cope with the industry’s impact in the busy fall season.
Cruise Portland launched PortShare Promise as a pilot program there last September.
On Monday, the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce said it will pilot PortShare Promise in Rockland and the midcoast region beginning later this month and running through the final large ship call on Oct. 1.
Management practices
Cruise ship calls to Rockland are up 142% this year, with 50 port calls throughout the season.
September is particularly heavy; the city is scheduled next month to host a record number of large cruise ships to its harbor.
Beginning Sept. 7, there will be visits from American Cruise Lines, which operates a fleet of smaller U.S.-flag vessels certified to carry fewer than 250 people.
The city is also slated to receive seven visits from larger ships, some carrying as many as 3,000 passengers.
Together, the ships are expected to bring 18,000 passengers and total estimated revenues of over $2 million in direct and indirect revenue to Rockland and the region.
The Promise program provides best tourism management practices designed to support the growth in cruise visitation, including passenger support, transportation, information and welcome services, and a community real-time feedback system.
The program has been developed with support from CruiseMaine and the Maine Office of Tourism and is a collaborative effort with the chamber, Rockland’s harbormaster, Rockland Main Street, Camden Area Business Group and numerous community volunteers and sponsors, according to a news release.
Where’s the breakwater?
“This is not a cruise promotion program,” said Shannon Landwehr, the chamber’s executive director, in a presentation on the program.
Instead, she explained, it's "a best management practice program” aimed at helping those 18,000 passengers easily visit Rockland and the midcoast in a short period of time and also to make the season easier for people who live and work in the area.
Strategies have been designed to be responsive to passengers and to the community as a whole, and to set a good light on Rockland and the entire midcoast community, Landwehr said.
The Rockland pilot is designed to help visitors with three of the biggest questions they typically pose to the chamber: Where are the lobster rolls, the restrooms and the Rockland Breakwater?
To help passengers find the breakwater, the program will have a shuttle system running on each cruise day this fall. The shuttles will have two routes, one to the breakwater and another going beyond to Camden. As they always do, passengers will continue to have the opportunity to buy additional transportation options, such as the many excursions that are available.
“This will not compete with those,” Landwehr said of the shuttle. “There are a lot of opportunities for people to move throughout the midcoast region.”
Restrooms are already located at the city pier, downtown and at the breakwater. The program will add facilities at the three spots.
Communication and collaboration are key to the program, said Landwehr. Components will include locations set up at the pier where passengers arrive onshore, with volunteers and information, plus tickets for the shuttle, and the chamber’s regional guides and maps. The chamber has set up a website with up-to-date information and a feedback portal; and has printed business cards with QR codes to be distributed throughout Rockland.
$30M statewide
Across Maine’s eight port communities, cruise visitors — both passengers and crew — spent over $30 million in direct visitor spending, according to a 2019 report, said Sarah Flink, executive director of Cruise Maine, part of the Maine Office of Tourism.
That’s the equivalent of over 400 full-time jobs and over 400,000 “visitor days” in Maine, Flink said. Over half are first-time visitors to Maine. That’s key, she said, because those visitors “fall in love with Maine” and go back and tell their friends and families about it.
Unlike other sectors of Maine’s tourism industry, peak cruising occurs in the fall. Of the 400,000 passengers expected this year, 65% are expected in the fall.
An interesting aspect of the industry, she noted, is that it’s a regional tourism product.
“Ships need to go to more than one place to have an interesting itinerary,” Flink said. Her organization works with counterparts from New York to Montréal to create an integrated tourism product, she said.
Another interest aspect, she continued, is that the industry is part of the working waterfront, anyone from pilots to longshoreman, utilizing services such as fuel, piers and repairs, and wholesale seafood sales.
“It’s part of the maritime commerce of our state,” Flink said.
That’s in addition to direct spending onshore. Food is the No. 1 expense, followed by shopping and then attractions.
Like the promise program, Cruise Maine in recent years has been emphasizing concepts such as “destination management” and sustainable tourism that focus not on marketing but on how to optimize the experience not only for visitors but for local residents and businesses, she said.
The promise program comes as the town of Bar Harbor grapples with cruise ship congestion, which resulted in 2022 in a 1,000-person daily disembarkation limit, followed by ongoing legal battles.
Bar Harbor is Maine's largest cruise ship port of call with scores of ships sailing in each year.
At the Rockland forum, Molly Eddy, Rockland’s harbormaster, said the goal of the Promise program is to help eliminate friction that many people experience when cruise ships arrive.
“We’re trying to learn lessons from Bar Harbor,” Eddy said.
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