26 Miles Across the Sea

I saw an article the other day about the state of the West Coast cruise industry, and patrons holding tickets for cruises in the next few weeks are not happy. They signed up for exotic Mexican Riviera ports-of-call, and instead are being told their cruises will go to places like San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. The swine flu virus is the culprit.

The cruise lines, already in trouble in a tough economy, aren't budging. Customers can't get their money back and at best can get a discount on a future cruise. The passengers are ticked.

Thanks to the virus, that we now know is not as much a threat as the media hype suggests, the little town of Avalon on Catalina Island is a booming place these days:

Reporting from Avalon, Santa Catalina Island -- City crews, dispatched before sunrise, hosed down streets, scrubbed public restrooms and strung up Christmas lights. Boutique shops were placing urgent orders for more T-shirts and swimsuits. The semi-submersible vessel Nautilus added three daily tours of Avalon's crescent-shaped harbor.

Then there was Michael Upton, owner of Wet Spot Rentals, whose family worked late into the night at their kitchen table painting white and blue images of Dodgers jerseys on fist-sized dried starfish, souvenirs he sells for $7.50 each.

"It's too bad it had to happen because of a nasty bug," he said from behind the small counter of his wood-framed business a few yards away from a pier where cruise ship passengers disembark. "But we're enjoying an unexpected windfall."

Santa Catalina Island merchants and restaurant owners were scrambling Saturday to prepare for their most lucrative May in memory as cruise lines rerouted from destinations in influenza-plagued Mexico to Avalon.

It could not have come at a better time, according to residents of Avalon, which has a year-round population of 3,500. The end of winter saw a precipitous drop in business because of a distressing combination of problems: the ailing economy, higher cross-channel fares from the mainland 22 miles away, and a lingering lull in visitors since much of the island was charred by a devastating fire in May 2007.

Business was down 18% in February and March, Avalon officials said.

All that changed after the U.S. State Department on Monday issued an advisory that U.S. citizens should avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico.

The next day, Wayne Griffin, president of the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce, and his staff "started making telephone calls to the cruise lines with this message," he said. "We hate to benefit at someone else's expense, but if you are looking for alternatives, we'd love to have you drop by."

The results far exceeded his expectations. "We're expecting 25 cruise ships in May, instead of the usual eight," he said. "Each one of those ships means $300,000 in passenger spending and tax revenues," or about $7.5 million.

"For two or three Avalon businesses I can think of," he added, "this unintended benefit means they may not have to close up shop."

Avalon's a neat place. My family vacationed there a number of times when I was a kid, and my wife and I have gone over there a couple of times ourselves. It's a great day trip (if the waters in the channel are relatively calm), and if you've got a couple of days a nice place to stay overnight.

Putting a bunch of cruise ships in there probably takes some of the charm out of the place, though for their sake I'm glad they're getting some much needed business at a trying time.