Tourism Best Management Practices for Whittier, AK

Why do we need BMPs for Whittier?

As the primary gateway to Prince William Sound, Whittier sees hundreds of thousands of people passing through its town each year. Prince William Sound attracts visitors who come by cruise ship, by kayak, in recreational and commercial fishing vessels, and everyone wants to enjoy its deep blue waters and the chance to fish or hunt or observe wildlife. Best Management Practices for tourism businesses operating in Whittier can help facilitate communication among tourism operators, residents and City operations to ensure that our Whittier neighborhoods are respected, that we’re supporting the business community in its needs for safe and efficient operations, and that visitors are offered a high quality experience in our community.

What are BMPs?

“A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing things, e.g., a standard way of complying with legal or ethical requirements.” Wikipedia

Canada Tourism explains that “ ‘Best’ is a contextual term. Those practices adopted by your tourism business will depend on what stage of development you are in, as well as your executive commitment.” BMPs are meant to function as a collective set of guidelines that set or exceed common standards of practice. BMPs are voluntary guidelines that a group of educators, or business owners, or other affiliated group of organizations agrees to follow.

Where else are BMPs used to help guide tourism operations?

• Juneau, Alaska
• Skagway, Alaska
• Canada Tourism, Practices in Adventure Travel and Ecotourism

How Are BMPs Being Developed?

A group of Whittier businesses asked the PWS Economic Development District for assistance in fall, 2022, and since then partners have been working to plan a public process for developing these guidelines. After a January, 2023 workshop attended by over 40 businesses and community stakeholders, a series of smaller group meetings was held to talk about the main topic areas of Communications (March 15, 2023), Cruise Ships (March 22, 2023), Traffic and Transportation (March 29, 2023), and Wilderness Values BMPs (April 5, 2023).

We used these draft BMPs as a working guide for the summer 2023 season.  Now we’re meeting on October 18, 2023, from 12 – 5 p.m. in the Whittier Council Chambers room to debrief on how well they worked, and what parts of the guidelines might need adjusting.  The meeting will be held in person with an option to participate on-line.