William Simpson
Cruise aficionados who want to see Alaska’s capital, Juneau, may have to fight for permission to disembark and set foot on dry land, under a new deal between the city and the main cruise companies that sail there.
O agreement between Juneau and the Cruise Lines International Association in Alaska (CLIA), finalized last week, seeks to limit the number of daily cruise passengers that can arrive in Juneau to 16,000 Sunday through Friday and 12,000 on Saturdays, beginning 2026.
The measure aims to limit the congestion and wear and tear that tourists can cause to a city. Visitors to Juneau soared to a record 1.6 million last year after the pandemic depressed numbers for two years. Other popular cities have taken similar measures to limit tourists and their effect on residents’ daily lives. For example, Venice, Italy, in April became the first city in the world to charge day-trippers a fee just to enter on peak days.
Alaska’s new agreement is designed to limit the number of visitors to roughly where they are now.
“The cruise industry is vital to our local economy and we need to improve our infrastructure and increase our tourism capacity to create a great guest experience and reduce impacts on residents,” Alexandra Pierce, director of the Juneau Visitor Industry, said in a statement. on Tuesday. “With this agreement, we commit to setting a cap to manage our busiest days and meeting annually to ensure our visitor numbers remain sustainable.”
In Alaska, residents have complained that record numbers of visitors contribute to bad traffic and increased noise pollution when they visit glaciers by helicopter. On the other hand, many local businesses depend on the cruise industry and the constant flow of visitors it provides, the city of Juneau acknowledged in a statement. declaration.
Cruise seasons have also been extended from early April to late October, offering year-round residents little relief from the presence of tourists.
Under a separate agreement, only five large ships are allowed per day during the current cruise season.
Pierce said other projects in the works will also likely lessen the impact tourists have on the city. They include installing a gondola at the town’s ski area, upgrading the downtown promenade and expanding visitor capacity at the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area.
City leaders are “trying to balance the needs of our residents, the needs of our economy, the needs of future opportunities for people to remain in our community,” she said.
The deal has its skeptics, however. Cruise industry critic Karla Hart says the new measure is not enough to curb unsustainable levels of tourism. “It feels like we are being driven again, and the expansion will continue and more time will pass,” she said, according to the Associated Press.
Hart is behind a local ballot proposal that would ban ships with at least 250 passengers from calling in Juneau on Saturdays or the Fourth of July.
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