With cruise season in full swing, Seattle reaps benefits

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By Camilo Fonseca, The Seattle Times

Johnny McCutcheon calls himself a “homebody.” Outside of work, he says, there’s not much reason to leave Huntsville, Alabama.

That is, except for last week, when he and his wife, Andrea, found themselves on the other side of the country, buying hoodies, trinkets and fresh flowers in Pike Place Market.

“I’m surprised with Seattle,” he said. “It’s a pretty nice little city.”

With McCutcheon’s seven-year wedding anniversary coming up, he had the excuse to book his wife an Alaska cruise. And while they were at it, why not take some time to see the Emerald City?

“I didn’t want to come off the boat and jump on an airplane to go home,” he said.

Instead, the couple found themselves wandering Pike Place, a prime attraction for vacationers fresh off the boat. They took in the skyline from Kerry Park, sampled the city’s Asian cuisine, and even bought last-minute tickets to a George Strait concert at Lumen Field. They managed to fit so much into their post-cruise vacation that they realized they’d run through their Seattle bucket list.

“If we had more time, we’d see more stuff,” he said.

The McCutcheons of Huntsville are hardly alone in their experience. Thousands of cruise passengers have already passed through the Port of Seattle on their way to Ketchikan or Juneau, aboard the massive floating resorts of Holland America, Celebrity, Princess and Norwegian.

“You look outside and see cruise ships on our waterfront every day,” said Rachel Smith, president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. “You see people packed to the gills at Pike Place Market, rolling their suitcases in and out of hotels, and filling our restaurants so that it’s hard to get a reservation. There’s really nothing like the summer in Seattle.”

This year, 1.43 million passengers are expected to cruise from Seattle — a 12 per cent uptick from the 1.28 million who came through last year. For the second consecutive year, this year’s projections are higher than 2019, indicating a continued strong recovery from the pandemic years when the Alaska cruise season came to a halt.

And while those passengers may not be booking their vacations with Seattle in mind, that doesn’t mean the city hasn’t felt the effects of their wallets.

“The cruise season in Seattle really is very impactful for our community,” Smith said. “It’s impactful for our businesses, and it’s impactful for our downtown revitalization.”

According to port officials, each ship homeporting at Seattle has an estimated impact of $4 million on the local economy. Through the third week of June, Seattle has seen nearly 100 ships embark from its piers — an economic impact of nearly $400 million.

In total, 290 cruises are expected to make port in Seattle from April to October, according to the most recent port schedule. These include 39 cruises operated by Holland America, which is headquartered in Seattle and works with nearly 400 Washington-based vendors.

A Port of Seattle spokesperson said the 2023 cruise season was proceeding “without any impacts to operations,” but declined to provide specific data.

Vendors at Pike Place Market have reported a busier season than past summers.

From lodging to boot liners

The strongest economic impact has been in the hospitality industry, particularly restaurants and hotels. Seattle led the nation in hotel occupancy in mid-June, according to a report by STR, a global hospitality data and analytics company.

Ian McClendon, general manager of The Edgewater on Alaskan Way, said that his hotel has traditionally catered to Pacific Northwest residents. Nevertheless, cruise passengers — along with cruise employees and staff — have been a “huge benefit” in such a highly competitive sector.

“Now that we’re seeing everything in full swing, I would say we’re seeing quite a bit more traction,” he said. “It’s really hard to quantify … but here, with 223 rooms, we could see a $60,000 to $80,000 increase a month, year over year, which is significant.”

McClendon said that The Edgewater’s “cruise business” makes up about 20 per cent of its weekly occupancy. On the weekends, when most cruises are scheduled to depart, that number shoots up to 40 per cent or 50 per cent.

The effects of the cruise business are felt beyond the waterfront, he added.

“We’re seeing, due to inflation, people’s spending habits changing pretty dramatically,” McClendon said, “Some people are taking their luggage and making the extra steps up the hill to (lodging in) the downtown area. There’s quite a bit of competition in rate, and some cheaper spaces (are) up there.”

With the arrival of cruise ship passengers, Smith said, every sector of the economy stands to benefit.

“It is without question that downtown business owners and managers know the day that the cruise ships arrive,” Smith said. “Even if (passengers) are not coming into your particular place of business — let’s say you’re a medical office or something — people can see and feel the significant influx of people on the streets again.”

Even small-business vendors, like Rayana White, who sells handmade dresses and boot liners at Pike Place Market, have noticed that this season is “way busier” than past summers.

“Most of my revenue comes from the summer months,” she said. “I’m only here a few days a week, and that’s enough.”

White, originally from Ketchikan, looks forward to cruise ship days, both for her business and for the chance to meet people from all over the world — who often don’t know the first thing about their destination.

“People don’t realize how cold it is in Alaska, where the wind and rain blows at you sideways,” she said. “Even in Seattle, they don’t realize what the weather is like in the summer. So where do they end up buying clothes? Here.”

More foot traffic

Cruise passengers have been a key part of the increase in downtown foot traffic over the last several months, Smith said. The Downtown Seattle Association estimated that nearly 2.5 million people visited downtown in May — an increase of more than 10 per cent from May 2022.

That figure is still slightly below the numbers of May 2019. But with corporate offices vacant and businesses slow to roll back their remote-work policies, the appearance of cruise passengers has been a welcome sight.

“We were kind of sluggish in our return to office,” Smith said. “So yes, tourism (has been) a huge benefit in terms of having feet on the street and making downtown more and more vibrant. (Especially) as employers were figuring out what their return-to-office policy was going to be.”

Now, the challenge for the city will be keeping the streets vibrant — in other words, maintaining a tourist-friendly environment while more workers return to the office.

And although citywide violent crime rates are slightly down from last year — when they reached a 15-year high — the issue remains a concern in neighborhoods like downtown and Belltown, which are among the most frequented by cruise ship passengers.

In May alone, those two neighborhoods combined saw eight weapons offences, 167 reported larcenies and 119 assaults, according to the most recent police department data. Downtown and Belltown have already seen three homicides this year, matching the total for all of 2022.

Nevertheless, business leaders in the city remain optimistic.

“It’s pretty evident we have a downtown in demand right now,” said James Sido, a spokesperson for the Downtown Seattle Association. “We need to ensure that people have a clean and welcoming environment once they get here.”

McClendon said that it was “a fine balance” for hotels trying to attract cruise passengers and still remain faithful to their more regional landlubber customers.

“Locals do tend to try to avoid some of that cruise traffic,” he said. “It’s part of what drives the city, and we’re extremely thankful and proud that we have this service in town. But you don’t want to fill up your entire hotel with cruise business. … You don’t want to put too much strain on your business by going too fast.”

Regardless of the challenges, Smith said the future of Seattle as a tourist destination looks bright — if potentially more crowded than before.

“We have a lot of tourists, we have a lot of workers and we have a lot of residents,” Smith said. “And I think, as a city, we’re poised to have more of all of them.”

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