Latest news with #HunaTotem
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Popular cruise destination to get new downtown cruise port
A years-long process to bring a new cruise ship pier to an in-demand summer cruise destination is finally on its way to the construction phase. City officials recently approved a lease for city-owned submerged tidelands required to build the new downtown cruise ship city already has multiple cruise ship docks, but a cruise tourism boom in recent years has increased the need for an additional port facility, which is expected to ease downtown congestion as it spreads the cruise ships and passengers visiting the destination out over a wider area. Overtourism concerns previously led the city to limit cruise ship arrivals to five ships per day and also prompted negotiations with cruise lines to cap the number of passengers disembarking from those ships beginning in 2026. With those limits in place and a new cruise ship dock in the works that the city has had a lot of say in, Juneau, Alaska is taking crucial steps to manage the impacts of cruise tourism in ways that improve the experience for both visitors and Juneau Assembly voted to approve the tidelands lease for the construction of Juneau's fifth cruise ship dock on April 7, according to Juneau's KTOO Public Media. The dock will be built in Gastineau Channel on the edge of the city's downtown area next to the city's U.S. Coast Guard station. Along with the dock, the project includes a waterfront development called Àak'w Landing that will feature a welcome center, retail and dining space, and parking. Named after the original inhabitants of the Juneau area, the Áak'w Ḵwáan, Àak'w Landing will also include an indigenous knowledge, science and cultural learning project is led by native-owned Huna Totem Corporation, a local leader in Alaska's tourism development. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings donated the waterfront land it purchased for the cruise ship facility to Huna Totem in 2022 to lead the efforts to develop a new pier and related infrastructure. Under the agreement, Norwegian Cruise Line brands will receive preferential berthing rights at the pier once development is complete. With the tidelands lease approved making it possible for construction to begin, Àak'w Landing is expected to be operational by summer the project's conditions, only one large cruise ship carrying 4,500 passengers or fewer will be permitted to dock at the facility per day. Huna Totem will equip the dock with shore power and require large cruise ships to turn off their engines and connect to onshore power while at berth in order to reduce harmful emissions and protect air quality around the port. Nearly 1.7 million cruise passengers visited Juneau in 2024, and the industry has faced a lot of criticism from local residents concerned about cruise tourism's environmental impacts, traffic congestion, and overcrowding on sidewalks and at Mendenhall Alaska-native corporation, Goldbelt Incorporated, has also proposed an additional Juneau cruise port project in partnership with Royal Caribbean Group that's aimed at easing congestion in the destination. The port is projected for completion during the 2027 cruise season, but hasn't yet received full support or approval from city leaders. The new cruise port would be located across the Gastineau Channel from downtown Juneau on the back side of Douglas Island. It would help cut down on tour bus traffic in the city's downtown by allowing passengers to depart directly from the island onto whale-watching tours or shuttle boats to Mendenhall Glacier. Cruise passengers visiting the port would also have the opportunity to experience the region's Tlingit culture through a recreated 1800s Alaska Native Tlingit village. (The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.) , or email Amy Post at or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Yahoo
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. Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
