Small Is Bountiful for Pioneer of Alaska Cruise Business

JUNEAU, Alaska —  When he found himself out of the travel business, Chuck West had two choices: Sit back and live on the proceeds from selling his pioneering Alaska tour company, or start again from scratch.

A quarter-century later, his family runs a tight ship--actually, eight ships--that are the centerpiece for Alaska Sightseeing-Cruise West, the second incarnation of West’s vision of tourism on the last frontier.

Twice, West has started on a shoestring and built multimillion-dollar tour businesses in Alaska. The first, Westours, began in the late 1940s, when tourism in Alaska was almost nonexistent and many doubted that visitors could be lured to a land misconstrued by the outside world as a perpetually frozen tundra.

“The unknown quality made Alaska a hard sell,” West said during a voyage aboard the Spirit of ‘98, one of his company’s cruise ships. “It caught on, but we’re still fighting that ignorance about what Alaska is.”

West launched his second foray in 1973, after he lost control of Westours and was forced out of the company. He jumped back into Alaska tourism at a time when the market was growing crowded and big travel companies were squeezing out smaller operations.

Starting with motorcoach tours across Alaska, West’s current company has expanded to include a fleet of eight vessels that operate between Seattle and southeastern Alaska. Alaska Sightseeing-Cruise West bills itself as North America’s biggest operator of small cruise ships.

West, 82, remains chairman of the Seattle-based business, though his son Dick, the president, runs day-to-day operations. From the outset, Chuck West’s tourism ventures have been family affairs, with his wife, Marguerite, and their five children participating in the businesses at various times.

The notion that the tundra was ripe for tourists struck West soon after World War II, when he was working as a bush pilot around Arctic Alaska. In between flying dog-sled teams, medical supplies and reindeer to remote villages, West experimented with piloting people from Fairbanks to view Eskimo villages and other sights.

West’s sightseeing trips took off. He quit his pilot’s job and went into tourism full time, booking flights for large airlines, packaging road, rail and boat tours, jury-rigging hotel space and even trying to lodge travelers at a tent city, which failed because of hard summer rains that turned it into a swamp.

Most of West’s undertakings were more successful. In 1957, he incorporated all his enterprises under the name Westours, which grew into a fleet of buses and small cruise ships that helped pave the way for the Alaska tourism boom that followed over the next four decades.

By the late 1960s, though, the company was stung by union strife and cash-flow problems resulting from high debts and expenses.

On the brink of bankruptcy, West sold controlling interest in Westours to Holland-America cruise lines in 1971. He remained Westours president, but Holland-America gradually eased him out and bought West’s remaining stock in 1973.

West was 58 and a millionaire. He could have retired, but was bitter at losing a handle on the industry he had pioneered. With his family’s blessing, he started again at the bottom, carrying passengers overland through Alaska on two oversized Dodge vans, tugging luggage behind in U-Haul trailers.

As his highway tours prospered, West began chartering boats for day cruises, then buying his own vessels for both day trips and extended voyages. He focused on small ships in reaction to the large vessels run by Holland-America, Princess Tours and other big lines that dominate Alaska cruise travel; those vessels can carry as many as 2,000 passengers.

The Spirit of Endeavour, the largest of Alaska Sightseeing-Cruise West’s vessels, carries just 107 passengers.

“I believed these smaller ships were the future,” West said. “On a small ship, it’s up close and personal. That’s where you’ll experience the real Alaska.”

Dick West said the company sought to find a niche market amid an increasingly competitive industry, where large cruise lines have been discounting fares to win customers. Alaska Sightseeing-Cruise West, whose cruises already cost much more than their larger competitors, decided against joining the fare wars.

With the average cruise costing $4,000--four times the price of a typical voyage on a larger ship--Alaska Sightseeing-Cruise West still figures it offers a lot more for the money.

“They really push the whole idea of making people’s dreams come true,” said Annabell Modell, a crew member aboard the Spirit of ’98. “With the crew, they try to make sure somebody’s not just being a good waiter or waitress, but that they’re really making sure everybody has a great time. A lot of people save all their lives for a trip like this.”

Part of the appeal is the snob factor, Dick West concedes. Passengers like being on a small, more personalized ship with an attentive, all-American crew, he said. Most competitors use foreign crews who work more cheaply.

The size of the company’s vessels also adds versatility to its voyages. While big cruise lines have tight schedules to keep, Alaska Sightseeing-Cruise West takes a more laid-back approach. During a recent voyage, the Spirit of ’98 repeatedly slowed when bears, whales or other wildlife turned up so passengers could have a better look.

“Nobody’s going to do that on a big ship,” Dick West said. “Those people on the big ships are never going to see that at all. The focus on small ships is to the outside, the wildlife and scenery. On the big ships, the focus is inside, the bars and restaurants and nightclubs on board.”

Jean Patterson of Corona has taken cruises aboard big ships but this summer chose to take her third voyage aboard one of the Wests’ vessels.

“In our older years, this appeals to us more,” Patterson said. “It’s like family coming aboard. On a big ship, you get to know maybe three or four people at your dining table. Here, you get to know almost everybody on board.”

The company’s fleet carried 23,000 passengers in 1996; the Wests do not release revenue figures. They hope to boost their numbers next year by adding some year-round destinations, starting with winter cruises to Baja California, Dick West said.

While the fleet expanded rapidly in the first half of the 1990s, adding a ship every year, the company does not plan to challenge the big cruise lines by acquiring larger vessels.

“We want to stick with what we do best,” Dick West said. “I think our passengers look over at the big ships and say, ‘We’re happy we chose this.’ As long as they keep saying that, we’re OK.”