Cruise fans who want to see Alaska‘s capital, Juneau, could have to compete for a permit to disembark and set foot on land, under a new agreement between the city and the major cruise lines that sail there.
The agreement between Juneau and the Alaska Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), finalized last week, seeks to limit the number of daily cruise passengers that can arrive in Juneau to 16,000 from Sunday to Friday, and 12,000 on Saturdays, to from 2026.
The measure aims to limit the congestion and wear and tear that tourists can cause in 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 hikers a fee just to enter on peak days.
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Alaska’s new agreement is designed to limit visitor levels to roughly current levels.
“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 the impact on residents,” Alexandra Pierce, director of Juneau Visitor Industry, said Tuesday. , it’s a statement. “With this agreement, we are committed to setting a limit 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 are contributing to bad traffic and increasing 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.
A cruise ship departs from downtown Juneau on June 7, 2023, along the Gastineau Channel in Alaska. Becky Bohrer/KeynoteUSA
Cruise seasons have also been extended from early April to late October, offering year-round residents little respite 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 city’s ski area, updating the downtown boardwalk 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 and the needs of future opportunities for people to remain in our community,” he said.
However, the agreement has its skeptics. Cruise industry critic Karla Hart says the new measure is not enough to curb unsustainable levels of tourism. “It feels like we’re just being guided again, and the expansion will continue and more time will pass,” she said, according to the KeynoteUSA.
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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