Quality over quantity:

While the total number of cruise ship visits to Petersburg will decline this summer, local tourism experts say the quality of port calls should actually increase.

"I think after looking at the schedule, the numbers of port calls are down, however, the quality of port calls are high," said James Valentine, co-owner of Viking Travel.

Petersburg will welcome 87 cruise ship visits in 2025, down from 104 the previous year. However, Valentine notes that many of last year's visits came at times when tourists had little opportunity to explore the community.

"A lot of the port calls that we lost from l...