THUNDER BAY - No cruise ships will be sailing into Thunder Bay’s harbour this year and while the city will lose a significant economic benefit, the future may still be bright for this niche tourism market.
“Long term the prognosis is really good for growth in the industry,” said Thunder Bay manager of tourism, Paul Pepe. “Right now we just have to take this as a bit of a speed bump.”
Victory Cruise Lines was scheduled to have a turnaround stop in Thunder Bay during the 2019 season, making it the first cruise ship to come to the city since 2012. However, a recent change in ownership has left those plans in dry dock.
According to Pepe, American Queen Steamboat Company acquired the company just two weeks ago following a deal that has been negotiated for more than a year.
“The new owners have made a decision just to dial things back a little bit on their Lake Superior itineraries, go back to the drawing board, and reconfigure them,” Pepe said.
The 202-passenger vessel, Victory II, was originally scheduled to stop in Thunder Bay in the summer of 2018 but delays in retrofitting the ship pushed that date back to 2019.
With this latest delay, Pepe said the city is still in talks with the new owners and he anticipates they will once again have Thunder Bay on their itineraries in 2020 because they appear to be committed to Lake Superior.
Pepe added that the city is also speaking with other cruise line companies about bringing ships to Thunder Bay to explore what he calls an exotic gem right in our own back yard.
“There are a number of new builds that started entering service in 2018, 2019, we have new ships that are being built right into 2021,” Pepe said. “There is interest in the Great Lakes and there is interest in Superior, it just takes time to build it out and we just have to be patient.”
Because Victory’s stop in Thunder Bay was scheduled to be a turnaround, meaning it would have been where one voyage ended and another began, Pepe estimates that it would have brought between $120,000 and $150,000 into the city.
“It had a different kind of economic impact, a much bigger economic impact on the city,” Pepe said. “So we are disappointed to lose that.”
“That is a bit of a chunk of money for us. But at the end of the day cruising is still a very small part of our overall tourism economy. We believe in the Great Lakes product, but it’s also a niche. It’s going to take time to build.”
The city did not make any capital investments this year specifically for the cruise ship coming to Pool 6.
“It just gives us some breathing room to develop future opportunities,” Pepe said.
