By Dan Kraker

MPR News/90.1 FM

It might not be Bermuda — or the Bahamas — but the city of Duluth, on the far southwestern tip of typically frigid Lake Superior, is one step closer to becoming a regular stop for passenger cruise ships plying the Great Lakes.

At its meeting Monday night, the Duluth City Council voted unanimously to spend $25,000 from the city’s tourism tax revenues to help purchase IT equipment for a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol office to help cruise ship passengers move through the customs process and disembark at the Duluth downtown waterfront.

The Duluth Economic Development Authority had already approved spending $50,000 to purchase the equipment required by the federal customs agency; the Duluth Seaway Port Authority is chipping in an additional $10,000.

The funding will establish a temporary customs facility to allow international — mostly Canadian — travelers to disembark from Great Lakes cruise ships and spend money in the city.

Supporters hope it will open Duluth’s port up to cruise traffic — and the economic boost it can bring. The initial financing is needed before the city can move forward with establishing a permanent office.

To be clear: Duluth is not expecting massive oceangoing cruise ships the size of small cities to drop anchor in its harbor.

“We’re definitely nothing like the Miamis of the world up here in the Twin Ports,” conceded Kate Ferguson, director of business development for the Port Authority. Those ships are much too large to fit through the locks connecting the Great Lakes together, anyway.

Rather, Ferguson said, Duluth will see “small, adventure cruising vessels,” that can accommodate up to about 200 passengers, plus another 100-plus crewmembers.

That kind of Great Lakes “cruising” is enjoying an upward growth trend in the tourism industry, Duluth economic development officials argue, and the city is eager to tap into the opportunity.

Miami-based Victory Cruise Lines is already planning itineraries that include Duluth two times next August, and once in 2020, as part of a nine-night cruise between Detroit and Thunder Bay, Ontario, with stops along the way at smaller destinations like Mackinac Island, the Soo Locks and Marquette, Mich.

Prices for the trips begin at more than $5,000. Three other companies also operate cruises on the Great Lakes, though none but Victory has planned stops in Duluth yet.

“These travelers tend to be seasoned travelers,” said Anna Tanski, CEO of Visit Duluth, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. “They tend to be quite affluent.”