The City of Craig put out a survey last month asking for input on how they should manage the growing tourism on Prince of Wales Island. The results were presented at a city council meeting last week.
The survey was requested by residents and 188 people completed it. The city received 134 resident surveys and 54 non-resident surveys. Many said they want less tourism in town. Fewer said they’d like to see more.
Andy Deering lives in Craig. He helped draft the survey and tally results. He’s skeptical of rising tourism in the community, but was still surprised with some of the results — like how people responded about tourism affecting their quality of life.
“Only 14% said positively,” Deering said. “And I was actually expecting that number to be higher. I mean, I’ve heard all kinds of people grousing and griping about the tourism and particularly the cruise ship tourism, but tourism in general, but that number is pretty low.”
Many respondents also said they think tourism will affect fishing and hunting competition, exposure to health risks, and their personal privacy. Marine pollution is another top concern. Results also indicate people’s opinions vary based on the type of tourism — more are in favor of independent travelers or charters than they are cruise ships.
There’s only one cruise ship dock on Prince of Wales Island, and it’s in Klawock. But many passengers spend their time on the island down the road in Craig.
The survey states that the City of Craig doesn’t control cruise ship schedules or passenger numbers. It’s still unclear what will be done with the results, but people seem to agree it’s a good starting point for how the town should approach rising tourism — even if some say a spike in visitors is inevitable.
Mayor Kasey Smith thanked city staff and community members for their hard work putting together the results. He wanted everyone to be able to voice their opinion before making decisions.
“Now that we’ve done that, it is coming right around the corner,” Smith said. “So there are some decisions that you know are going to need to be made here relatively quick.”
One of those decisions, Smith said, is how and when they should give out access permits for public community areas. More people responded that they don’t want access permits granted for community areas like Graveyard Trail and Cannery Point. Several respondents indicated they’re worried about congestion on walking trails and increased foot traffic.
Smith said he wanted more discussion on access permits, but he pointed out they could be a useful way to get funding.
“We all agreed that we don’t want to use community dollars to promote tourism or maintain trails,” Smith said. “But we want to keep these trails up to date and in good shape, not only for people from out of state, but for ourselves. And one way to do that is through access grants. “
An overwhelming majority of survey respondents said they would support a Tourism Advisory Committee to provide community input and make recommendations to the City Council on tourism-related matters in Craig.
The idea for the survey emerged last fall, when community members and the city met in the Craig high school auditorium to air their grievances about the town’s rising tourism industry.
The survey was available for around a month, and the deadline was early April. Results can be found online.
The first cruise ship is scheduled to dock in Klawock in less than two weeks. Around 50 cruise ships are expected to visit the island this summer.
