Holding the fort
Residents form committee to impress cruise passengers
Volunteers have stepped up to welcome cruise ships to Louisbourg, despite the fact that their arrivals will be well ahead of when the tourist season actually starts.
Four different cruise ships will make nine visits to the historic French town of Louisbourg this year and the locals are laying out the red carpet.
The MS Fram, owned by Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten Group, will arrive on April 26 – a month before restaurants, gift shops and other businesses typically open for the season in Louisbourg.
With the likelihood of more than 300 passengers inundating the community in only a couple of weeks, a meeting was hosted by Parks Canada and Destination Cape Breton Association to address logistics and how to keep so many tourists entertained beyond a trip to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site.
That’s when Jenna Lahey raised her hand to head the volunteer effort to make it a memorable experience for people visiting from around the globe.
Lahey, who is the public relations and marketing manager at Louisbourg Seafoods, said there wasn’t much time for the volunteer committee to waste, with only a few weeks to plan for the first cruise ship to arrive.
“It’s very early and nothing is open in town,” she said, adding many businesses couldn’t justify opening several weeks early to cater to a couple of cruise ships.
“Out in Louisbourg when things shut down for the winter everything has to be winterized, your water has to be shut off or it’ll freeze. It’s all of those things so it’s a little early for those businesses to open.” Businesses nor-
mally open for the season by the Victoria Day long weekend in May.
The second cruise ship visit on May 11 will be the MS Fram on its second tour of New England and Atlantic Canada.
On the days cruise passengers are in port, a Louisbourg farmers’ market offering locally produced food and crafts will be set up at the Fortress Senior Citizens Club on the waterfront. So far, 19 vendors have committed and there’s another five on a waiting list, Lahey said.
The Louisbourg Playhouse will open its doors to tourists offering them coffee, tea, oatcakes and some Atlantic Canadian folk tunes performed by a local musician.
A chance to interact with marine life will also be part of the tour as the new Oceans of Opportunity marine science and heritage centre will open to cruise passengers, she said.
The laboratory will include everything from microscopes to actual running seawater and tanks with marine life ranging from sea cucumbers to lob-
sters and whelk and redfish.
The Oceans of Opportunity centre, a joint project of the Eastern Nova Scotia Marine Stewardship Society and Louisbourg Seafoods, includes a cluster of buildings on the waterfront that have been renovated to house a main office, a science laboratory, marine museum and boatbuilding shop.
The few cruise ships that visit Louisbourg each year would normally have the vessels dock at the fortress, however, a Parks Canada coastal erosion and sea level rise construction project to reinforce the Barrier Beach and the Quay Wall will mean tendering to the dock at the fortress won’t be possible this year.
“(It’s) our opportunity to show the people in charge of these cruise ships that Louisbourg is a place worth seeing, not just because it’s a fortress but because it’s a unique, beautiful place in and of itself.”
Along with the nine cruise ship visits between late April and early October, the province’s floating ambassador, Bluenose II, will also dock for tours on July 24-25.