By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
After the summer visitors season, a survey of more than 600 Sitka residents and nonresidents found:
– 55 percent were in support a full closure of Lincoln Street next season on busy cruise ship days (5,000 or more), with or without modifications.
– 37 percent felt they were “severely impacted” by traffic at Lake and Lincoln streets.
– 36 percent said they were “severely impacted” by jaywalking on Harbor Drive.
Tourists walk on Lincoln Street in July. (Sentinel File Photo)
Those were among the results of the End of Season Tourism Survey, which drew responses from 601 participants.
City Planning Director Amy Ainslie, who designed the survey, will present the results at a joint work session of the Planning Commission and Assembly on Oct. 27.
The survey was open for public response from Sept. 15 to October 15, and was scheduled as part of the Short-Term Tourism Plan for the cruise ship season.
The work session with results of all of the 32 questions is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at Harrigan Centennial Hall and is open to the public.
About 95 percent of those surveyed were residents and 5 percent nonresidents, and all but 20 participated online. Responses could be submitted online at the city website or on paper at city hall or the library.
The summer visitor season was the busiest in Sitka’s history, with some 383,000 passengers arriving on cruise ships at the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal or lightering in from ships to the docks at Crescent Harbor and O’Connell Bridge.
The figure was below the 480,000 passengers expected, even with the additional Princess Cruise stops diverted from Skagway, where a dock was destroyed by a landslide.
In the months leading up to the season, the Planning Commission worked with residents and businesses on the Short-Term Tourism Plan, later approved by the Assembly. It called for adding city staff to maintain tourism facilities; closing Lincoln Street on busy cruise ship days; and installing portable restrooms downtown. The Lincoln Street restrooms didn’t obstruct traffic during non-closure hours, but restrooms on Maksoutoff Street remained in place, and the street was closed for the summer.
Questions on the survey touched on impacts to participants in such areas as traffic, parking and daily routines. Residents were asked for feedback on the closure hours, locations of restrooms and suggestions for improvements.
Ainslie said she was pleased with the response level, equivalent to 7 percent of the Sitka population.
“Once we got above the 300 we’re looking at a pretty representative sample,” she said.
About 20 percent of the participants identified as retired, 17 percent in government work, 10 percent in health care, 7 percent in arts, science, or social work; 7 percent in financial services and professional work; 6 percent in downtown business; and 5 percent in tour operations.
While many results reflected comments she heard over the summer, she said some were unexpected.
“There’s been a lot of mixed feedback: there are some who enjoyed the increased opportunities (for local residents) from increased cruise tourism and the street closure. On the other hand, there were those who felt as though the higher cruise numbers were not desirable and have negatively impacted Sitkans,” Ainslie said.
“What’s really interesting is before the plan was adopted we had another community survey, and we asked survey participants to rate the impact of cruise ship tourism, independent tourism and the overall industry,” she said. “The comparison between pre- and post-season is interesting. ... The percentage of respondents rating the cruise industry to having a negative or highly negative impact increased by 13 percent (to 50 percent).”
Positive ratings for independent travel were down by 21 percent in the post-season survey, Ainslee said. Those who felt “highly positive” about independent travelers dropped from 58 percent to 37 percent.
“There are some caveats,” she said. “People feel more impacted, more negative in the post-season survey,” which was run immediately after the end of the busy season.
Ainslie said she has more work to do before Thursday, including summarizing the 440 responses to the open end questions on the survey, asking about “actions, programs or operations” they would like to see, and generally “other feedback.”
“I think a lot of people want to emphasize the impact they felt,” she said. “It was an opportunity to emphasize the importance of their answer or provide more details, such as where they wanted the restrooms, or what solutions they had.” She said some saw it as an opportunity to express their feelings of frustration about the increase in cruise tourism.
Ainslie said the results are interesting but she doesn’t know how the Planning Commission or Assembly will use the data and responses in crafting a plan for next year, and the future.
“On some questions we got pretty good answers,” she said. “It also raises lots of questions as well about what cruise tourism looks like in Sitka and what the community desires it to look like.”
She noted half of the respondents work downtown, on Katlian Street or Japonski Island.
“We do need to balance visitation to that area with people needing to carry out their day-to-day lives,” Ainslie said.
She referred to that as “a Goldilocks question”:
“We don’t want too many people because it disrupts our day-to-day lives; and we don’t want too few because we want a healthy downtown that stays open all year,” Ainslie said. “We want to find that spot that’s just right.”
