United States Department of Agriculture Preliminary Research Forest Service Findings From a Study of Pacific Northwest Research Station the Sociocultural Effects of General Technical Tourism in Haines, Alaska Report PNW-GTR-612 Lee K. Cerveny July 2004 The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and private forest owners, and management of the National Forests and National Grasslands, it strives—as directed by Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326- W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. USDA is committed to making its information materials accessible to all USDA customers and employees. Author Lee K. Cerveny is a research social scientist, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 400 N 34th Street, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98103. Cover photograph by Lee Cerveny. Abstract Cerveny, Lee K. 2004. Preliminary research findings from a study of the socio- cultural effects of tourism in Haines, Alaska. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-612. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific North- west Research Station. 144 p. This report examines the growth and development of the tourism industry in Haines, Alaska, and its effects on community life and land use. It also describes the development of cruise-based tourism and its relation to shifts in local social and economic structures and patterns of land use, especially local recreation use trends. A multisited ethnographic approach was used featuring participant observation and in-depth interviews with local residents, cruise line industry personnel, and visitors to southeast Alaska. Results show that tourism brings both positive and negative changes to Alaska communities. Data from this report can assist Forest Service planners to identify factors involved in the relation between tourism growth and community well-being. It also may assist small southeast Alaska communities in decisionmaking related to tourism development. Keywords: Tongass National Forest, southeast Alaska, tourism, communities. Preface This report represents the preliminary results of field research conducted from 2000 through 2001 by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW) in Juneau, Alaska. The Haines community study was part of a larger proj- ect to examine the sociocultural effects of tourism in three southeast Alaska com- munities. The project was developed by researchers from PNW with input from the USDA Forest Service, Alaska Regional Office; the Tongass National Forest; and the former Alaska Division of Tourism. This study addresses research and information needs identified in the 1997 Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan (TLMP) to understand community relations with Tongass-related tourism (USDA Forest Service). The Tongass National Forest provided funding for this TLMP administra- tive study. In addition, this study is being conducted as a doctoral dissertation in an- thropology with the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. This study contributes to the development of a theory related to tourism and its impacts on communities and resources. This is the first of a series of three community reports on tourism in southeast Alaska communities. Subsequent reports will present data collected during field research that took place in Hoonah from 2000 through 2001 and in Craig in 2001. A final report analyzing and comparing tourism trends in all three communities also was prepared in 2004. These studies are part of an effort by PNW to research recreation and tourism trends and provide analyses that will be useful in Forest Service planning. Data from this study on the effects of tourism and recreation in southeast Alaska communities will assist Forest Service planners to identify factors involved in the relation between tourism growth and community well-being. This information also may be useful in decisionmaking related to tourism management and recreation development. In addition, the research may assist small southeast Alaska communities as they work through various stages of decisionmaking related to tourism development. Lessons from Haines, Hoonah, and Craig may provide important insights for scholars of tourism and community change in many social science disciplines and for communities worldwide negotiating their relation with the tourism industry. Contents 1 Background 2 Study Context 6 Study Goals and Research Activities 8 Relation to Other Research and Planning Efforts 9 Structure of This Report 11 Section 1: Research Methods 11 Site Selection 12 Literature Review 13 Data Sources 19 Section 2: Haines—A Community Profile 19 Physical Setting 19 Cultural History 20 Local Government 21 Land Ownership 22 Haines’ Economic History 30 Economy 37 Population and Demography 43 Other Community Characteristics 45 Conclusion 47 Section 3: The Evolution of Tourism in Haines 47 The Early Years 48 Haines as an Emerging Destination 50 Public Investment in Tourism 53 The Growth of Cruise-Based Tourism 59 Local Business Responds to the Cruise Industry 62 Impacts of the Growth of Cruise Tourism 73 Local Efforts to Plan for Tourism and Manage Tourism Impacts 78 The Cruise Industry Response 82 Conclusion 83 Section 4: Understanding Tourism-Community Relations 83 Understanding the Roots of Tourism Conflict 92 Understanding the Impacts of Tourism 92 Economic Impacts 99 Social Impacts 103 Resource Impacts 109 Impacts on Local Infrastructure 110 Future Tourism Impacts 112 Conclusion 115 Section 5: Research Implications 115 Local Control and Corporate Decisionmaking 117 Tourism and Social Segmentation 119 Tourism and the Commoditization of Landscape 121 Transitioning to Tourism 125 Future Community Studies 126 Conclusion 126 Acknowledgments 127 English Equivalents 127 References 139 Appendix: Interview Guides Preliminary Research Findings From a Study of the Sociocultural Effects of Tourism in Haines, Alaska Background Since the 1980s, tourism has become one of southeast Alaska’s most important industries, generating new businesses and job growth. The growth of tourism in Alaska has afforded new possibilities to southeast Alaska communities struggling for economic survival amid declines in traditional industries such as timber and fishing. With few other economic alternatives, many local officials have turned to tourism as a way to create jobs, spur business development, and contribute to municipal revenues. In response to tourism, the sociocultural fabric of southeast Alaska has changed to accommodate the new industry (Egan 2000). In addition, tourism has resulted in changes in the way southeast Alaskans perceive and utilize natural resources. Community leaders are deciding to what extent their economies should be based on tourism and what a tourism economy means for the social life of the community. Provocative questions are being asked, such as: How much tourism do we want to have? What types of tourism activities do we want to promote? How do we mitigate tourism’s undesirable effects? How do we entertain tourism while maintaining our existing quality of life? Haines represents an excellent case study for understanding the effects of tour- ism because of the rapid growth in tourist volume related to the cruise industry. Examining tourism in Haines during this crucial period of transition has provided a unique opportunity to study the effects of cruise-based tourism in its early stages. Haines’ relative isolation and its visible ties to the global economy make it ideal for sociocultural analysis. This report summarizes research on the varied impacts of tourism on Haines, Alaska, from the perspectives of local residents. This research incorporates a multisited ethnographic approach featuring the use of participant observation and indepth interviews (Bernard 1995, Kottak 1999). Field research in Haines took place from May through September 2000 and in February 2001. The resulting data were largely qualitative, stemming from semi- structured interviews and observations at public events where residents talked about tourism and its relation to their community. The use of ethnographic meth- ods promoted a deep knowledge of tourism and its relation to community life and resulted in data that would have been difficult to achieve by using standard survey approaches. This report demonstrates preliminary findings based on a first round of ethnographic analysis. These observations will be further tested and substantiated in subsequent reports. 1 General Technical Report PNW-GTR-612 Study Context Through 2001, the global tourism industry experienced abundant growth. Accord- ing to the World Travel and Tourism Council,