The Canadian Tourism Commission’s Tourism Online’s Staff writes a story about Canadian vessel operators and the opportunity for innovation and expansion. Here is the story as posted online:
Building an inland tourist fleet in Canada
There is big money in the cruise industry these days, and it’s not just on the world’s oceans where the fleet is going through a period of extraordinary growth. There is a growing demand for small-ship and river cruises (See SIDEBAR: Small ship and river cruising has huge potential).
Much of the industry’s growth, of course, is in “berthed” ships (with overnight passenger accommodation), and most of these – even those classified as “small” ships – are too large for many waterways in Canada. But not all of inland Canada’s cruise fleet are berthed ships.
In fact, when you begin to include the day‑cruise, sightseeing and dinner cruise fleet, the number of available opportunities increase exponentially. Toronto and Montréal – inland seaports in their own right – have innumerable harbour cruises and dinner‑cruise vessels. Sightseeing tours (often combined with dinner cruises) can be found in cities across the nation including Ottawa and Winnipeg and even in the prairie cities of Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary.
Much of the inland fleet is aging, and as demand for these experiences increases, older vessels are being re‑born in different markets, offering unique new opportunities. The former Georgian Clipper (a small 12‑cabin berthed ship built a decade ago for use on Georgian Bay but more recently operated in the St. Lawrence near Kingston) is expected to move to Montréal for the 2008 season.
Shearwater Boat Tours at Saskatoon moved a Rideau Canal boat to that city in 2003, and has added a second vessel for the 2008 season – the Meewasin Queen, formerly the Lady Chesley from Selkirk, Manitoba. Shearwater has even been nominated by its DMO for a marketing award this year, recognizing a simple statement of the obvious: in 2007, the company marketed the 43‑passenger Saskatoon Princess as “The Littlest Showboat in North America”, offering dinner and live entertainment packages to sold‑out audiences!
Kurt Huck’s Capital Cruises is putting the Empress of Ottawa (originally named Miss Kingston) into service on the Ottawa River in the spring of 2008. The 300‑passenger Empress, which will dock both at the foot of the Rideau Canal locks and across the river in Gatineau, will be one of the first sightseeing vessels in Canada to use AudioConexus‘ state‑of‑the‑art wireless technology to deliver professionally produced commentary tailored to the needs of the international traveller, in a choice of English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, or Spanish.
A number of Canada’s inland boat tour experiences fall into the “classic” or ”heritage” category. The 200 passenger motor vessel International has been in service at Waterton Lakes National Park since 1927, and cruise companies have operated in Canada’s neighbouring mountain parks for longer than that. Boat tour businesses at Banff and Jasper have been family owned and operated ventures for over a century, and while their fleets have been renewed over time, the tour experience has remained much the same (presumably on the justifiable principle that mountain glacier lakes hold their own spleandour which should not be over‑packaged). Lake Minnewanka Boat Tours at Banff was purchased in 2007 by Brewster Inc., a company known for excellence in visitor service, heritage interpretation, and product innovation such as the well‑known Ice Explorer coaches, will be adding a new 63‑passenger cruise boat to the fleet in May of 2008.
Despite Canada’s scenic beauty and abundance of waterways, developing the small‑cruise industry faces a number of challenges. At the larger end of the scale, on the Great Lakes, industry expert Stephen Burnett refers to the challenging logistics of getting cruise ships to bring their internationally‑mobile fleet into Canada’s heartland.
Smaller vessels, on the other hand, are still ships, and enlarging and enhancing the fleet will almost certainly require the consumption of large quantities of steel and/or aluminum – commodities whose prices continue to skyrocket, forcing businesses and investors to pay very close attention to the bottom line when drawing up business plans for constructing new vessels. A constantly‑changing regulatory environment also poses challenges, as Transport Canada continues a decades‑long process of re‑visiting its vision of what constitutes safe vessels, mandatory crew certification and operating protocols.
There is only one passenger‑vessel industry association in Canada, the aptly‑named and well‑regarded Canadian Passenger Vessel Association. However, the long‑established CPVA has traditionally been almost totally absorbed in lobbying Transport Canada about the regulatory environment, and has paid scant attention to industry‑wide marketing or product development.
Technology itself offers an opportunity for product growth. The appropriate use of solar‑powered vessels (to say nothing of going back to the future with high‑tech versions of sail power) is being explored in Europe and Asia, but we do not hear much about this in Canada despite the obvious benefits at both the operations and marketing level.
Think Holland or Britain, and tourists think about barge holidays and canal cruising. Think about Europe (or even the southern USA) and tourists think river cruising. Think about Canada, and tourists are inclined to think about the canoe – not precisely everyone’s idea of a way to spend time on a holiday, in spite of its strong traditions and definite appeal.
There is an opportunity for Canada to market inland waterway experiences. Just ask Stephen Burnett.
