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Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
3 Alaskans explain why they want cruise ship limits — even though their businesses depend on tourism
Juneau, Alaska, has implemented cruise ship and passenger caps to curb its cruise boom. Three local businesses told BI they support these limits despite relying on cruisers for revenue. The influx of Alaskan cruises has increasingly strained Juneau's residents and infrastructure. To visitors scurrying around Juneau, Alaska, Caribou Crossings may look like any other seasonal tourist town gift shop. To its owner, Laura McDonnell, the 28-year-old storefront means so much more. McDonnell has worked at Caribou Crossings for 25 years, starting when she was 16. She said she "grew up in that little store," staying through high school and college before eventually purchasing the business in January 2020. She remembers holding one of her current employees as a baby. When she went into labor, her obstetric nurse had been a previous employee, working at the gift shop to put herself through nursing school. It's a self-described "typical Alaskan tourism love story" — and it's all thanks to Juneau's booming cruise industry, whose passengers account for 98% of the store's revenue, according to McDonnell. Like many local businesses, cruisers are vital to Caribou Crossings' health. Yet, its owner supports the city's recent limitations on the vacation-at-sea industry — and she's not alone. "Southeast Alaska is a challenging place to live, and those of us live here because it's beautiful and because of the lifestyle that it offers," Alexandra Pierce, Juneau's visitor industry director, told Business Insider. "People in the visitor industry, myself included, are locals first, and protecting that balance in our communities is really important to us." Juneau is the state's busiest cruise hub. Alaska State Sen. Jesse Kiehl told BI that the city only saw 170,000 non-cruise visitors in 2024. It's a drop in the bucket — or snowflake on Denali — compared to the record 1.73 million by-ship tourists who visited last year — a 33% spike from 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study commissioned by the city. If the growth continues at this rate, it could be a windfall for local businesses like Caribou Crossings. According to Juneau's study, the cruise industry fed $375 million into the city's economy in 2023. Most of this came from direct passenger spending, as Serene Hutchinson, the general manager of tour operator Juneau Tours, can attest. "These cruise lines coming to Juneau may be big corporations, but they're benefiting us local companies," she told BI, noting that 95% of her company's customers are cruise passengers. Yet, like McDonnell, Hutchinson supports Juneau's implementation of a five-ship per-day cap in 2024 and a 16,000 cruise passenger per-day restraint (12,000 on Saturdays) in 2026. The limitations, negotiated with the cruise industry, are projected to maintain the volume of cruise visitors for this and next year. For McDonnell, it's a worthy trade-off. "We need to manage the tourists we've got before we talk about growth," she said. The self-imposed restrictions may seem counterintuitive to outsiders: These floating resorts and their passengers are consequential to the livelihood of Alaska's capital city. It's spurred a locally-operated visitor industry boom, a shortlist of which includes gift shops, helicopter tours, whale-watching boats, and excursions to the nearby Mendenhall Glacier. "Without this economic bright spot, the region would be a different, more struggling place," Pierce said. However, for residents like Holly Johnson — the 52-year-old chief marketing officer of tour operator Wings Airways and the Taku Glacier Lodge — these caps are a "sweet spot." About 85% of her company's clients are cruise passengers. Yet, she too supports the restrictions, calling them a "really good sense of what Juneau needs and what is happening in the industry, growth-wise." Without them, the vacation-at-sea boom could have become increasingly overwhelming for the city — fettered not by demand (which feels seemingly endless) but by the local infrastructure. Like other cruise-plagued towns, as cruises have boomed, so has local discontent. In the survey of 501 Juneau residents in late 2024, 20% of respondents said further limiting cruise volume should be the city's most important priority — up 5% from 2023. On days when the 31,555-person city is slammed with upward of 17,000 cruisers, residents have complained about traffic, noise, excessive wakes from whale-watching tour boats, dropped cell reception, slower WiFi, and even bears searching for garbage visitors leave behind. "We have to drive through these streets every day, too," Caribou Crossings' owner said. "We know what it's like to live here with cruise ship passengers." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska cruises are more popular than ever. Locals say there can be too much of a good thing.
Alaskan cruises have surged in popularity — its cruise hub, Juneau, saw a record 1.73 million cruisers in 2024. The cruise boom has boosted the city's local economy but strained its infrastructure and residents. In response, Juneau has set daily ship and passenger limits. Hundreds of miles of hiking trails may surround Juneau, Alaska, but living there year-round is no walk in the park. In the winter, the state's capital city sees less than seven hours of sunlight daily. With some restaurants and shops closed, these chilly months can feel quiet and gloomy for the city's 31,555 residents. But in the spring and summer, when the bears awaken and the flowers come alive, so too do the city's streets — largely thanks to the bustling cruise industry. As Alaska's busiest cruise hub, Juneau can get slammed with upward of 17,000 cruise tourists on any given summer day. With it has come local economic success — and a growing disdain for the vacation-at-sea industry. Juneau saw a record 1.73 million cruisers in 2024 — a 33% spike from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic record in 2019, according to a study by McKinley Research Group for the city. It's not much compared to Miami's 8.2 million cruisers in 2024, for comparison, but unlike Florida, Juneau only operates a six-month cruise season and is relatively small, with no drivable roads leading in and out. When it comes to tourism, cruises are the main source by a long shot. Alaska State Sen. Jesse Kiehl told Business Insider that he estimates Juneau will only see about 175,000 independent tourists — those that don't come on ships — this year. "We have this huge opportunity that most small towns would kill to have at their doorstep," Laura McDonnell, the owner of local gift shop Caribou Crossings, told BI. Cruisers make up 98% of her business' revenue, she estimates. "They're so enamored and happy to be here, and it's taken some of them their whole lives to get here. Cruise tourism is what's made that accessible." Carnival Corp's CEO told analysts in 2024 that Alaskan voyages were "off the charts." That's especially true for first-time cruisers, he said, touting popular "cruisetours" that include stops at the company's lodge near Denali National Park. This year is expected to look no different. Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have reported banner demand for their 2025 Alaskan itineraries. Norwegian plans to deploy a larger ship for longer voyages. Holland America is spending $70 million to expand guest accommodations at the Denali lodge. Cruises are crucial to the local economy, Kiehl said. The McKinley study found they injected some $375 million in 2023, mostly from direct passenger spending. But like most any town with a significant cruise port, not everyone is pleased with the influx of tourists. "I have to say that visitors have gotten a little rowdier," Liz Perry, the CEO of Travel Juneau, told BI. "Since COVID-19, it's gotten even worse. They feel entitled to very, very high levels of service at a time when our operators are really working to give that service, but they may not be able to get staffed up." Downtown Juneau is sandwiched between mountains and the water. The streets are narrow and hilly, many one-way. As such, thousands of people suddenly storming downtown can slow traffic. (To alleviate this, the city is building a waterfront pedestrian walkway near the cruise ports.) Concurrently, the surge can overwhelm the city's cell network, which has caused locals to lose cell reception and WiFi. (Juneau's visitor industry director, Alexandra Pierce, told BI that the city is implementing public WiFi and working with two providers to increase network capacity.) And then there's the vicious cycle of visitors leaving trash, the trash attracting bears, and the bears exciting visitors. (The state ultimately euthanized two black bears in downtown Juneau last summer.) "All of those things combine to contribute to resident discontent," Pierce said. "As people responsible for managing these destinations and stewarding them, it is almost a game of whack-a-mole." To mitigate locals' concerns, the city negotiated with the cruise industry to implement a five-ship per day limit in 2024. Starting in 2026, the city will also cap the number of incoming cruise ship passengers at 16,000 per day, excluding Saturdays, which will have a 12,000-passenger limit. In a McKinley survey of 501 Juneau residents in late 2024, 20% of respondents said further limiting cruise volume should be the city's most important priority. That's up 5% from the year prior. But they don't want too many restrictions — voters drew the line at "ship-free Saturdays," a ballot proposition that failed to pass in late 2024. "Having the limits gives us the opportunity to fine-tune and improve as opposed to just triage and be reactive all the time," Pierce said. Yes, local businesses (in tandem with the city and cruise lines) will ultimately miss out on greater profits. However, "local always comes first," Holly Johnson, the CMO of tour operator Wings Airway, told BI. About 85% of her company's customers come from cruises, yet she supports the ship and passenger limits. "We could live anywhere, but this is where we live," she said. Read the original article on Business Insider
