Let’s all calm down a bit that Global Port Holdings is going to make us a management offer on our cruise ship dock.
Let’s remember, first and foremost, that the Haines Borough did not go looking for some other party to manage its dock. GPH said, “We’d like to make you an offer.” And the borough said, “Fine. Knock yourself out. Make your offer.”
We did not lift up our skirt for GPH. We didn’t coo. We didn’t even wink.
In mid-summer after some unnecessary hand-wringing about nothing, the borough developed some verbiage about how this arrangement might work, and on what terms, but the ball is still squarely on GPH’s side of the court.
The pitch of the alarm about a potential offer speaks volumes about how quickly assumptions, suppositions and fear come to dominate this town in the absence of absolute certainty.
It’s as though large numbers of us have forgotten that the world is an uncertain place and not every uncertainty is a threat.
I’m open to looking at a proposal from GPH because I can’t imagine all the ways our town might fashion itself as a cruise ship destination. I can’t imagine which and how many cruise ships might want to dock here, or why. I can’t say what cruise ship tourism will look like 20 years from now.
Folks in Haines are not enamored of large cruise ships, nor do they want to see a rise in cruise traffic. This has been established in the borough’s recent public survey about the industry, and in our Comprehensive Plan.
GPH would be foolish to present a dock-management plan that brought more cruise passengers or bigger ships.
If GPH is as savvy as they present themselves to be, perhaps they have some other ideas, including bringing fewer but more exclusive ships, with passengers hungry for a fine meal and a show, not a zipline ride.
Not ages ago, our cruise ship program looked like that – well-heeled passengers on smaller boats who visited the Hotel Halsingland or took in a salmon bake and the Chilkat Dancers, then perhaps stopped at Alaska Indian Arts to commission a totem pole at $1,000 per foot.
Unrealistic? Consider that two of the most exclusive cruise ships in the world – The World and Luminara – docked in Haines this summer. Permanent berths aboard The World start at $3.5 million. On the Ritz-Carlton owned Luminara, skiff drivers make $400 daily and shore excursions operators are required to receive training on how to speak with passengers.
Turns out, Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell the Third are alive and well, seeking we can presume, a more exclusive cruise experience. With a revived Alaska Indian Arts and salmon bake, a rebuilt Tribal House and restored Hotel Halsingland, perhaps Haines could offer that.
If GPH are truly flash, maybe they could redesign our port into a very different experience, less crowded and more exclusive, and perhaps residents and businesses would like that more than our current cruise ship mash-up. And perhaps everyone would make more money.
Let’s all take a deep breath and see what GPH says. If it’s not something better than we already have, it’s Sayonara to GPH. And thank you for your offer. But let’s have a listen.