This Is the First Privately Owned Cruise Destination in Alaska
More than 20 years ago, when the Tlingit residents of Hoonah in coastal Alaska decided to build a cruise port on native land, the stakes were high. The community's main sources of income—logging and fishing—were failing and locals were leaving for opportunities elsewhere.
'A lot of our younger generation started losing their identity,' says Russell Dick, the president and CEO of Huna Totem Corporation, the business branch of the community.
But cruise ships were already regularly sailing into Glacier Bay, the historic homeland of the Tlingit band, now based on Chichagof Island, about 35 miles west of Juneau. Community leaders considered diverting some of that traffic with the objective of introducing visitors not just to the land, but to its original people.
'What better way to be proud of who you are and show who you are than through tourism, inviting people to come and visit and understand how you live and what's important to you?' asks Dick.
This is a part of | T+L's Global Vision Awards 2025 | Read More
Now, the resulting port known as Icy Strait Point has come of age. Entering its 21st year in operation as the first private cruise destination on Alaska's Inside Passage, Icy Strait Point was honored by Travel + Leisure's 2025 Global Vision Awards.
Built by the community for the community, Icy Strait Point was located more than a mile from the town of Hoonah to preserve the privacy of locals. A 1912 former salmon cannery acts as Icy Strait Point's hub with a museum and Alaskan-owned retail shops. Locals guide more than 20 shore excursions, including coastal bear viewing, whale watching and cultural tours. Surrounded by more than 23,000 acres of private land that includes beach and rain forest, a gondola system ferries cruise passengers around the port and to the top of a nearby mountain for panoramic views, replacing 75 buses and their associated emissions along the way.
Development decisions applied triple-bottom-line standards that balanced profit alongside the needs of the environment and its people. 'Sustainability isn't just reducing emissions; it's about sustaining the community,' says Dick.
Rebuilding the social fabric while transitioning to a new economy takes time, but 20 years in Huna Totem points to language revitalization among its accomplishments at Icy Strait Point. Children dance with pride in native regalia at the cruise port and some community members who had left are returning to open new businesses and raise families.
'Everything revolves around authenticity,' says Dick, noting that Icy Strait Point has resisted expanding beyond its two existing docks to maintain its size and curb development. 'With too many people, you start to lose your identity and your authenticity and we just don't want that.'
Instead, Huna Totem is using Icy Strait Point as a model for sustainable, indigenous-led development in communities from Alaska to the Caribbean, including partnering with the native corporation Klawock Heenya on Prince of Wales Island. On the southern stretch of the Inside Passage, the port of Klawock opened last May, replacing a former industrial site with eco-tourism activities such as sport fishing and totem-carving demonstrations.
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