Kodiak is not one of Alaska’s tourism hotspots, and visitors to the island usually come to hunt or to fish. But interest in wildlife viewing is also growing, and there are a few businesses in town capitalizing on that interest.
If you live in Kodiak, it’s hard to miss the new business around town. The 10-seater van has a massive photo of brown bears vinyl wrapped across its body, with the words “Kodiak Bear Bus” written in bold white letters on its side.
"Yeah, we are the big green bus with bears all over us," said Jacob Buck, the Bear Bus' driver and guide. "We don't go anywhere in disguise."
On July 16, KMXT joined Buck on the Bear Bus. Unlike traditional wildlife tours, which start at a specific time, the Bear Bus forms its schedule around the tides. So the bus sat near a bay thirty minutes west of town at 8 p.m. on a Thursday, waiting to see a Kodiak brown bear.
The Bear Bus’ owners, Scott and Jackie Stone, started the business just last month. But they are not new to wildlife tourism business in general. The couple are based in Kodiak, but spend summers in Katmai National Park, where they host guests for multiday bear tours.
Currently, they’re in Katmai, and could only answer questions over email. Scott Stone writes they built the bear bus partly to give their Katmai bear camp clients something to do while they’re in Kodiak. But Buck said another reason was to capture a new market.
“They also wanted to help provide a service for the different cruise ships that have been coming into Kodiak," Buck said.
The Stones’ bear camps cost nearly $5,000 per person for three days. The Bear Bus tours are $130 per person, which Buck said is an easier sell for tourists coming off of a cruise ship.
Kodiak is one of Alaska’s smallest cruise ship ports by numbers: cruise companies don’t own any businesses in town, and most ships bring fewer than a thousand guests. But according to data from Kodiak’s tourism bureau, cruise ship passenger numbers are set to increase by 26% this year.
Other businesses are also capitalizing on the increase in cruise traffic. Stephen Foreman, who owns and operates a whale watching and sightseeing business called Kodiak Scenic Tours, said the season has been good so far.
“It’s the best one yet," he said. "Each year in the last five years has gotten incrementally better, and this one appears to be right in that realm.”
Foreman said cruise ship passengers currently make up the minority of his business, but that he’s been contracting with the ships more than he used to. As for the rest of his customers, he said people normally book with him as an extra after spending their trip on fishing charters. But he adds that might be changing.
“I was actually really surprised in my tour last night," he said. "I asked this question to all six of my guests, ‘Hey, are you guys going out fishing? Are you guys going out doing some other charter stuff?’ And they were only here to do wildlife.”
He isn’t the only one who’s noticed this. Sabrina Hicks is the executive director of Discover Kodiak, the city’s visitor’s bureau. As Hicks and KMXT chat in the Discover Kodiak office, a couple wanders in to buy a puffin plushie. They too are forgoing fishing charters in favor of looking for puffins and whales. Hicks said it’s becoming more common.
“That is something that I’ve seen, and I’ve been here for three years, but just living here for seven, I’ve seen that change,” she said.
Other visitors to the Discover Kodiak office were here for work or to visit relatives. But when asked what they were most excited to see, there was a common theme.
“It’s so just not something we see in Florida," said visitor Mandy Shafer, talking about the island's wildlife. "And when you come to Kodiak, there’s so many bears. So you want to see bears!”
The growth of tourism in Kodiak, especially wildlife tourism, hasn’t always been a smooth ride. Buck said that when bears are hunting for salmon in Womens Bay, there are often swarms of people parked illegally to take pictures. He recalls his first summer in Kodiak, when he was watching bears feeding on salmon at the Buskin River.
“All of a sudden, there are like five different trucks that pull right up," he said. "And people are hopping out and running to the side of the bridge, and the bear just split.”
Hicks said she and the bureau have been developing a plan to get more feedback from the community and make sure Kodiak’s tourism scene doesn’t get too big. Because at the end of the day, she said the island’s down-to-Earth feel is what keeps people coming back.
“I think that’s the draw for people to come visit," she said. "They have already gone to other communities like Ketchikan and Juneau, but they’re searching for more of an authentic experience. They don’t want to go to a zoo and see a Kodiak brown bear, they want to see where the bears live.”
But those bears can be tricky to find. Back on the Bear Bus, we’ve been searching for thirty minutes without any luck. So Buck takes us to see another of the island’s large denizens, Steller sea lions. Animals like bears aren’t a guarantee, but the sea lions, Buck said, never fail to put on a show. And neither does the rest of the island.
"Kodiak grabs hold of you pretty tightly," he said. "It's so rich with opportunity."
