Fewer tourists crossing border

CAMPOBELLO, New Brunswick – The island that is home to Roosevelt-Campobello International Park is suffering this summer as U.S. tourists avoid the Canadian border.

The cross-border visitors that Campobello Island businesses rely on just haven’t made the trip, according to Victoria Cunningham, president of the Campobello Island Tourism Association.

Cunningham said business at the island’s motels, gift shops, whale boat cruise companies and scenic tour programs is down by 20 percent to 50 percent.

“It’s just dead,” Cunningham said Monday from her gift shop on a corner near the bridge that connects Lubec, Maine, with Campobello.

The drop in visitors appears to stem from a misconception about how difficult it is to get across the border – including a perception that crossing into Canada now requires a passport, she said.

Cunningham said all that is needed to cross from Maine onto Campobello Island is a photo ID – which can be easily be obtained for children by taking them and a copy of their birth certificates to driver licensing centers in the United States or Canada.

Skip Cole, superintendent of Roosevelt-Campobello International Park, lives in the United States and crosses between Lubec and Campobello daily. Cole said the two-hour waits that marked the first two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are long gone. The longest wait he’s had in the past six months was 15 minutes, he said.

Cole said the park had 23,675 visitors in July, a drop of more than 13,000 from July 2001, but last year’s counter was found to be defective and the July 2001 numbers may be a little high. June visits to the park – which is the biggest draw for first-time visitors to Campobello – were down almost 20 percent from last year, he said.

There’s been a distinct drop in the number of people coming across the International Bridge from Lubec to Campobello, according to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

Communications officer Jacinthe LeBlanc said 47,098 people went through Canadian Customs on the bridge during July. In July 2001, there were 54,251 travelers, she said.

The lack of visitors is reflected in fewer walk-ins to the Lupine Lodge, according to owner Lesley Savage. The island’s whale-watching cruises – one of Campobello’s large tourist draws – also are down.

Terry Greene, a part-owner of Island Cruises Whale Watching, said the company last summer did an average of four trips a day. This year, there is usually one good trip a day, she said.

Pam Matthews, manager of Campobello Whale Watch Co., said her business is down 40 percent to 50 percent.

Gordon Phillips, owner of Campobello Gift House, said concerns about the border, including some “bad publicity” about long waits at the crossings between Calais, Maine, and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, appear to be the reason for fewer visitors. The exchange rate – one U.S. dollar is worth about $1.50 in Canada – is essentially the same as it was last year, Phillips said.

Waits at the Calais-St. Stephen border can be as long as an hour and a half, according to Lee Aragon, owner of the 20-unit Eastland Motel in Lubec.

Aragon, whose motel is having its best year in history, said people who have come across the border in Calais are extremely reluctant to go from Lubec to Campobello – even if there aren’t any rooms in Lubec.

“They’d rather sleep in their cars,” Aragon said. “But none of the people I’ve sent to Campobello have ever had a problem coming back into Maine.”

Sheri Coates, operator of the Campobello Island Visitors Center, said there are four border crossings between the United States and Canada in Down East Maine and it is just the Calais-St. Stephen crossing where the waits can be long.

Coates said visitors heading to Campobello can take the International Bridge, the Lubec-to-Campobello ferry or the ferry from Eastport to Deer Island and from Deer Island to Campobello.

“If everybody is cooperative, there aren’t problems,” Coates said. “And everyone here will welcome you with open arms.”