Juneau Draft Tourism Management Plan March 29, 2002 Letter of Transmittal To: The Assembly and City Manager, City and Borough of Juneau The People, City and Borough of Juneau Tourism Businesses in Juneau North West Cruiseship Association Members From: Bob Harvey, Team Leader Egret Communications/ARA Consulting Juneau Tourism Planning Team Concerning: Draft Tourism Plan for Juneau Date: 29 March 2002 Egret Communications and ARA Consulting have prepared the attached Draft Tourism Plan for Juneau as a step toward the completion of the Juneau Tourism Planning Project. We are pleased to report that we feel this plan will both enjoy broad support and achieve the goals of this project. We have listened intently to thoughtful input from all interested parties and crafted a plan and actions which we believe will serve the balance between growing a strong tourism economy and managing its impacts. We have built in mechanisms to evolve this plan as circumstances evolve. We believe in this plan – and we believe that the people and government of Juneau have the ability and resolve to execute this plan. When we entered this project, out team made the following observation: “Egret Communications and the ARA Consulting Group believe that this project can yield a plan for a tourism future for the City and Borough of Juneau that will result in fewer negative impacts than those currently experienced, that will support a healthy and sustainable tourism industry, and that will enable the CBJ and its residents to feel “in control” of the present and future.” This plan meets those criteria. Over the next few weeks, we’ll gather input on the plan, through web polling, from city staff, from the assembly, from the industry, and from community stakeholders. We’d like that input by April 19. Then we’ll modify this plan, reflecting that input, and present it to the assembly for review and adoption on April 29. It is our hope that the assembly will consider the year of intense public participation in this planning process reflected in this plan and move quickly to adoption and implementation. It would be most helpful to the future of Juneau tourism and community well-being if the Juneau Tourism Partnership could be set into motion, fully supported, before the start of the cruise tourism season. Thank you for the opportunity to work with the people, businesses, and government of Juneau on this exciting and meaningful project. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ________________________________________________________________ I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY _______________________________________________________________ 1 1. SITUATION ANALYSIS ___________________________________________________________ 7 1.1 Physical Setting 7 1.2 People, Culture, and Heritage 7 1.3 Tourism Resources 8 1.4 Infrastructure 8 1.5 Tourism Development 9 1.6 Tourism in Juneau 10 1.7 Tourism Trends that impact Juneau 17 1.8 Destination Marketing – New Directions 17 1.9 Contribution to a Destination’s Quality of Life 18 1.10 Growth Areas Within the Tourism Sector 19 1.11 Cruise Tourism Trends 20 1.12 The Alaska Cruise Market 24 1.13 A Destination Perspective 27 1.14 Trends resulting from Terrorism Activities 29 2. STRATEGIC AUDIT ____________________________________________________________ 31 2.1 Process 31 2.2 Findings that Shaped this Plan 32 2.3 Technical Review 37 2.4 The Scenarios 39 3. STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR TOURISM MANAGEMENT _____________________________________ 40 3.1 Vision and Objectives 40 3.2 Overall Guiding Principles for the Tourism Plan 41 3.3 Strategic Directions – Tourism Positioning 42 3.4 Rationalize and Modernize Juneau’s Approach to Tourism 43 3.5 Update the Comprehensive Plan 45 4. JUNEAU TOURISM ROLES _______________________________________________________ 47 4.1 CBJ Roles and Organizational Actions 47 4.2 Related Agencies 48 4.3 Functional Roles and Responsibilities 49 5. THE JUNEAU TOURISM PARTNERSHIP ________________________________________________ 55 5.1 JTP Role and Mandate 55 5.2 Board of Directors 56 5.3 JTP Functions 58 5.4 Staffing and Budgeting 58 5.5 Relationships and Linkages Error! Bookmark not defined. 6. PROGRAMS: MANAGING IMPACTS __________________________________________________ 64 6.1 Annual Process for Impact Discussions and Actions 64 Juneau Tourism Management Plan March, 2002 Egret Communications/ARA Consulting Table of Contents 6.2 Role of Best Management Practices 64 6.3 Impact Management Recommendations 64 6.4 Air and Water Quality 71 6.5 Recreational Resources 72 7. PROGRAMS: PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT _______________________________________________ 74 7.1 Product Development Programs 74 7.2 Priority Product Development Projects 78 7.3 Aligning Priority Projects with Current Priorities 92 8. PROGRAMS: MARKETING________________________________________________________ 93 9. JTP PROGRAMS: MONITORING PLAN PERFORMANCE AND IMPACTS_____________________________ 99 9.1 Cruise Safety Valve Strategy 100 9.2 Destination Travel Safety Valve 102 9.3 Proactive Approach 105 10. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN _______________________________________________________ 106 10.1 Preparing for Plan Implementation 106 10.2 Implementing the Tourism Management Plan 107 Juneau Tourism Management Plan March, 2002 Egret Communications/ARA Consulting Table of Contents Acknowledgements The Egret Communications/ARA Consulting team approached this project with the understanding that Juneau is a community with strong opinions and feelings regarding tourism issues. We want to commend the people of Juneau for taking the time to sit down with us time and again, in a collaborative manner, and work out the details in this plan. Parts of this process have been hard and painful for some people and we admire the way you, the citizens of Juneau, have stayed with the process and have invested in its outcome. We want to commend city staff - who were as determined as we are to have this planning project produce not a document – but the basis of a solution to the issues facing Juneau’s tourism and, just as importantly, the path toward a tourism future that Juneau can embrace and build together. Juneau’s business community and tourism industry have partnered fully with this planning process. We were tested, as we should have been, on both our tourism knowledge and whether we came with an agenda. The local tourism industry helped this team understand issues in both discussion and by taking us flightseeing, whale watching, glacier cruising, etc. The insights from leaders and from experiences helped very much in this planning process. We want to thank the cruise industry for providing information when that was needed, and for responding positively to Juneau’s request to reframe the relationship between this community and your industry. We want to thank Juneau’s media for providing fair coverage to the processes of this planning project and for helping to generate participation in the polls and public sessions The Forest Service has been most cooperative as we have asked challenging questions about impacts, permits, and resource integrity. We appreciate the help the agency has given this project. In particular, we want to thank the Assembly. We have had extremely open and frank conversations with most of the Assembly and found Juneau’s leaders, whatever their leaning, to be committed to a future that is good for both residents and businesses. Assembly members have listened hard to both our technical findings and our community assessments – and have challenged us with insightful questions. Juneau Tourism Management Plan March, 2002 Egret Communications/ARA Consulting Page i Along the way, our team has spent time in many Juneau living rooms. We’ve shared meals and coffee with many of you. We’ve met into the night and over the phone. We’ve tasted home-smoked salmon and home made bread. And in the process we’ve developed a real fondness and respect for those of you that call Juneau home and who have shared so openly with us. On behalf of this team, thank you. Bob Harvey, Team Leader Egret Communications Juneau Tourism Management Plan March, 2002 Egret Communications/ARA Consulting Page ii Executive Summary The Juneau Tourism Plan development process was undertaken by Egret Communications and ARA Consulting in April 2001, under contract with the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska. This planning process was initiated in response to community concerns about rapid cruise tourism growth, but has focused on managing the success and impacts of both cruise tourism and destination travel. The project, from the beginning, has employed sustainable development philosophy and criteria to the development of a plan that is designed to work for both community and tourism industry. This plan, from inception, has focused on reducing impacts, creating a more supportive tourism business environment, improving product quality and visitor experience, and developing a partnership between residents and local businesses to manage for success. The planning process has actively sought input from both the community and the tourism industry. Public processes, including web polling, have been aimed at seeing past the ongoing public discussion and taking the pulse of the broader community. Local input has been balanced with technical expertise brought to this project by the team, and by comparing tourism performance and trends in similar situations around the world. The changing environment for tourism, resulting from recent terrorism events, has been taken into account in both planning and forecasting. The following sections capture an abbreviated