LITTLE CURRENT—Over the past decade the Port of Little Current has enjoyed an increasing number of cruise ship visits as more and more people are discovering the Great Lakes as a cruising destination. While Little Current has been the beneficiary of that phenomenon future trends in Great Lakes cruising might see the community falling victim to that success over the long term.
While the number of cruise ships visiting the Port of Little Current this year has dropped precipitously, even as demand for Great Lakes cruising has been steadily scaling up, Canada Customs is apparently the “villain.”
“In February, American Queen cancelled 30 arrivals in Little Current,” said Bruce O’Hare, co-owner of Lakeshore Excursions. “That brought the number of visits down from 42 to around 12 or so.” Mr. O’Hare said the cancellations stemmed from a delay by Canada Customs in declaring Little Current as a port where passengers could be cleared for entry into the country.
“They said they were struggling with staffing issues,” said Mr. O’Hare. “By the time they finally did name Little Current in March, decisions had already been made.” Little Current has apparently been replaced on that cruise ship’s Great Lakes itinerary by a small community in upper Michigan.
Killarney will therefore eclipse Manitoulin Island in the number of cruise ship visits this year.
“There will be two Viking cruise ships visiting Killarney this year,” noted Mr. O’Hare, “as is Hapag Lloyd.”
There are two of the long-term issues facing the Island as a destination for cruise ships, Mr. O’Hare pointed out. One is that the larger ships being utilized in the Great Lakes cannot traverse the North Channel, geography is working against us as the North Channel is too shallow. The second issue, infrastructure, is not as big an issue and is one shared with much larger communities—our docks are just not large enough for the new cruise ships.
“That’s not as big a problem as cruise companies have no problem with tendering in,” said Mr. O’Hare. “We do that now with a number of vessels.” Mr. O’Hare pointed out that Mackinac, much the jewel in the Great Lakes crown, has docks that are also too small and require tendering. “Even Milwaukee’s cruise docks are too small, as are the Port of Detroit. We are not alone.”
The issue is that ships must go around Manitoulin Island rather than transit the North Channel in order to reach Mackinac or Lake Superior. Travelling into visit Little Current would simply add too much time to the trip.
Great Lakes Cruise Association (GLCA) is a group set up to attract cruise ships to the Great Lakes and executive director Stephen Burnett has spent decades attending excursion shows touting the region to cruise companies. He is bullish on the continued growth of the industry.
“The industry on the Great Lakes is up substantially,” said Mr. Burnett, “both in the number of vessels and the number of new builds. There is definitely an upward trend. Viking is doubling its ships in the lakes this year and we will be seeing three new cruise ships later this year or early next year.”
“Unfortunately, Little Current was a casualty of the pandemic,” said Mr. Burnett, but he said he anticipates those visits will rebound in coming years.
