Building Cape Ann buzz: New operator hopes guided bus tours attract tourists

ESSEX — As an aspiring tour guide with a detailed knowledge of the region, Bob Marquis of Lufkin Point Road knows he isn't the first business owner with visions of running guided tours on Cape Ann.

But Marquis, owner of Schooner's Market on Eastern Avenue, said he thinks the time for an independent tour service has come, and this year he has been transforming the yellow building behind the market into a visitors center and base camp for tours he hopes become a magnet for visitors throughout the region.

"This is still a hidden jewel," Marquis said yesterday. "There is no other independent visitor center in the area and there have been a couple of different people doing van tours, but nothing that has done a complete circle of Cape Ann."

Marquis' 38-mile-long tours, operating under the name Coastal Visits, will begin at the Eastern Avenue visitors center and head into the center of Essex for the first stop at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. From there, the van will double back and head to Conomo Point, where Marquis said he will show visitors the clam flats, Cross Island and give them a taste of the neighborhood's history.

From Essex, the tour will take Route 133 into Gloucester, visiting Stage Fort Park, the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center, Rocky Neck and Good Harbor Beach. The guide will then take Thatcher Road to Rockport, where visitors will make a 30-minute stop at Bearskin Neck. From there the tour will complete the circle, heading to Pigeon Cove, return to Gloucester and go through Annisquam, then back to Essex.

Marquis said he hopes to start the twice daily, three-hour tours after Memorial Day and also will run charter and full- and half-day tours through the region.

In addition to the tours, Marquis said Coastal Visits will include a visitors center where local merchants and organizations can place brochures advertising their wares and a gift shop-gallery where local artisans can sell their goods on consignment.

The new service comes as a number of Cape Ann hospitality-based businesses have joined together to try to raise the profile of Gloucester and Cape Ann as a destination for large tour groups through a technique called "destination marketing."

Marquis said he thinks Cape Ann has the potential to attract several times more tourists to the area than it does currently and said the key to making it happen would be to build up tourist infrastructure and reach a critical mass of interest in the region. He cited Salem as an example of a city that has been much better at marketing itself as a destination.

Previous attempts to run guided tours on Cape Ann have met with mixed results, including amphibious duck tours that stopped a few years ago after battling with the state over water access and double-decker trolley tours that ran from Rockport to Gloucester, which also have ceased operations.

Marquis said he thought Coastal Visits could capitalize on the recent spike in gas prices by convincing tourists that driving themselves around the area wasn't the best choice. He said because he wasn't relying on the tours for a primary source of income, he would have the ability to stick with the operation and wait out rough patches others couldn't.

Linn Parisi of Over the Bridge Tours, a company that works with tour groups and is at the head of Cape Ann's destination marketing effort, said Cape Ann was on the verge of becoming the kind of destination that could support scheduled public tours.

"I don't know if we are there yet," Parisi said. "When we have more hotel and visitor space, we'll have more visitors in general. We're all working toward that same goal."

Marquis said in addition to filling a need for scheduled, guided tours on Cape Ann, Coastal Visits will provide a boost for Essex businesses by drawing visitors and providing a space where locals could advertise.

"Sometimes the businesses here feel like the poor stepchild and there has never been a place where people can get solid information about this end of Cape Ann," Marquis said. "I just have to get a buzz created and this will be able to give back a little."

Photos

First stop: A new bus tour of Cape Ann will leave from Eastern Avenue i n Essex, stopping first at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Staff photo