PORTLAND, Maine – State officials have given small domestic cruise lines permission to return to Maine this summer. But giant, multi-thousand passenger ships – and the megabucks they bring to the state in terms of tourist spending and docking fees – aren’t coming back anytime soon.

Exact numbers are hard to come by, but state and local officials estimate that Maine lost more than $ 30 million in docking fees and shore spending in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic dragged on for the entire season.

This year, instead of seeing hundreds of large ships carrying thousands of people, Maine is likely to see only two small ships carrying fewer than 200 at a time. These small boats and their relatively few tourists will bring in only a fraction of the money the state would raise during a normal cruise season.

On Thursday, CruiseMaine, a branch of the Maine Office of Tourism, announced that the Independence with 96 passengers and the American Constitution with 175 passengers would arrive in May and June, respectively. All passengers must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus before boarding.

Both ships are operated by American Cruise Lines based in New England.

Currently, only ships with fewer than 250 passengers have been cleared by state and federal health authorities. Larger ships are still prohibited from operating in US waters.

According to CruiseMaine, large ships take 90 days to prepare for passenger operations, which makes Maine’s early summer season out of the question. A late summer or fall season remains possible but unlikely.

Without the big ships, Maine’s two most popular cruise destinations, Portland and Bar Harbor, will face the most economic problems. Of around 450,000 passengers expected to enter Maine last year, 95 percent were destined for these two destinations, according to CruiseMaine.

Bar Harbor harbourmaster Charlie Phippen said his city lost $ 1.4 million in docking fees in 2020. Most of it came from large ships.

City officials have yet to officially approve cruise visits for 2021. However, if they do, Phippen said the “Independence” will likely visit Bar Harbor 19 times. Each time the city charges docking fees of around $ 1,700.

Bar Harbor communal docking fees are based on $ 4.55 per person of stated capacity. This does not include the crew and may differ from the actual number of visitors on board.

Larger ships, designed for thousands of tourists, pay much more than smaller ones.

“We’re getting ships with up to 4,000 people,” said Phippen.

A ship this size costs more than $ 18,000 in docking fees.

Large ships actually anchor in port and are driven into town on delicate boats that moor on a private pier. Phippen said ships are also paying a fee to the private company.

Salvatore, a Bar Harbor hotel manager and chairman of the city’s cruise committee, told the Bangor Daily News in February that it would be “devastating” to have a second summer and fall with little or no ships.

“Cruise lines aren’t just a sideshow,” said Salvatore, adding that cruise line tourists are generating between $ 20 million and $ 30 million for the Mount Desert Island tourism industry.

In 2019, Portland welcomed 90 ships with docking fees of $ 1,637,688 paid to the city to connect the city’s Ocean Gateway Terminal, according to city spokeswoman Jessica Grondin.

The final year should be a banner year with 131 ships paying a total of $ 2,626,257.50 for docking.

Instead, no ships came at all. The city’s multi-million dollar terminal has been empty for more than a year.

In Portland, cruise lines pay a flat fee of $ 13 per person. The 96-passenger “independence” would pay the city $ 1,248. A larger ship with 4,000 passengers would pay $ 52,000.

Grondin said not only did the city council lose in 2020, local businesses felt the loss too, although they couldn’t say how much.

“There has obviously been an impact on companies that take care of the cruise lines and generate income from tourism spending,” Grondin said. “However, we cannot calculate this.”

Grondin also said it was unclear whether Portland would get money for federal pandemic aid to make up for lost docking fees.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR