Great Lakes cruise ships are making another comeback in Thunder Bay.
The luxury yacht Clelia II made its inaugural visit to the Lakehead city, July 3, the first of 11 scheduled stops this summer.
“The ship leaves a pretty enormous economic impact when it docks,” said Thunder Bay tourism manager Paul Pepe, with an estimated 11,000 tourists expected by year's end.
Though moored for only a few hours, about 100 passengers per trip will walk down the gangplank to dine in restaurants, tour local attractions, buy souvenirs, rent bikes and take cabs to explore the city.
“We estimate the economic impact for those nine hours at about $50,000,” said Pepe.
This summer, there are five small excursion-type luxury yachts on the lakes this summer, including the Clelia II.
The ship will run all summer between Toronto and Duluth, Minn. with seven-day cruises ranging between $5,500 to $11,000 per person.
After an unsuccessful earlier run with larger cruise ships – because of problems with water depth, security issues, and operators pulling out for more popular global destinations – it appears small ships are now the way to go.
The 290-foot Clelia II will dock at the city-owned Pool 6 property, Thunder Bay's new marine passenger terminal. It was once the site of a grain elevator operation in the Port Arthur section of town.
A cruise ship dock is an offshoot of Thunder Bay's $130 million Prince Arthur's Landing waterfront development at Marina Park. During the last century, this stretch of the waterfront held commercial package freight and passenger docks for Great Lakes steamships.
In a few years, the city intends to make capital investments to the Pool 6 dock to meet more of the ship operators' needs, said Pepe.
“This year we waived the wharfage fees so they get to dock for free and we've taken the approach that this is a catalyst for economic development.”
Though never aggressively marketed, he feels what Lake Superior has to offer as a cruising destination, “is as exotic as anywhere else on the planet, as exotic as the Galapagos.”
“Strategically we see a lot of growth for the expedition cruising market in Lake Superior,” said Pepe.
On the trade show circuit, the city is placing less emphasis on the traditional consumer travel shows and opting to make industry contacts with tour operators.
When Thunder Bay tourism officials attended last year's Seatrade Cruise Shipping in Miami, the world's largest gathering of cruise shipping professors, they feel they made an impression in promoting Superior as a hot future cruise market.
As part of the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition, Pepe said the city is working with a number of cruise lines to encourage them to use Thunder Bay as an embarkation point. Passenger would fly into the city and ships would resupply locally with fuel and groceries.
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