From the National Park Service – Gulf Islands National Seashore:
Good Morning,
Note: Please see the statement below regarding available ridership information for Pensacola Bay Cruises. The National Park Service does not release ridership or other commercial use data through press releases. However, when available the park service is happy to provide upon request.
Ferry ridership numbers have been a little challenging to compile because of the triangular route, all-day hop on/off ticket, 3-day and frequent rider (10 day) passes, and specialty cruises. To date we only have numbers for June 22 through Aug. 30; we’re missing July 30-31 and Aug. 31. We won’t have Sept. numbers until Oct. 15 (per contract). Please note that these numbers are as reported by the concessioner.
Ridership from June 22 – Aug. 30 (exclusive of July 30-31 and Aug. 31):
City to Fort Pickens – 2,649
City to Pensacola Beach – 5,637
Fort Pickens to City – 2,771
Fort Pickens to Pensacola Beach – 2,236
Pensacola Beach to City – 5,421
Pensacola Beach to Fort Pickens – 2,315
Specialty Cruises – 876
During the above stated time period there were 9,397 tickets sold, but we do not yet have information on how many of those were 3-day or frequent rider (10-day) passes.
Demographic surveys of passengers have not been conducted. However, anecdotally it appeared that a majority of the passengers enumerated above were local residents who had learned about the ferry from media coverage over the past few years. NPS encounters indicate that the service is not yet widely known to out of town visitors here on vacation and staying in hotels or other facilities. Out of town visitors are a very significant and still largely untapped audience.
We are continuing to work with George Aswad and Gulf Coast Maritime Services regarding the operation of Pensacola Bay Cruises beyond his current contract which expires at the end of 2018. We hope to have more information sometime in the next few days or so.
We will be undergoing a planning exercise to determine what level of concession services would be appropriate at the entrance to the Fort Pickens campground, and how that might be combined with other landside concessions opportunities at Fort Pickens. The park’s General Management Plan calls for the campground registration function to be moved from the historic lifesaving station to the campground entrance. That will also be a part of our planning considerations.