An Alaska tourist spot will vote whether to ban cruise ships on Saturdays to give locals a break

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Annually, a crush of vacationers arrives in Alaska’s capital metropolis on cruise ships to see wonders just like the fast-diminishing Mendenhall Glacier. Now, long-simmering tensions over Juneau’s tourism increase are coming to a head over a brand new voter initiative aimed toward giving residents a respite from the inflow.

A measure that may ban cruise ships with 250 or extra passengers from docking in Juneau on Saturdays certified for the Oct. 1 municipal poll, setting the stage for a debate about how a lot tourism is an excessive amount of in a metropolis that’s experiencing first-hand the impacts of local weather change. The measure would additionally ban ships on July 4, a day when locals flock to a downtown parade.

The “ship-free Saturdays” initiative that certified this week will go to voters except the native Meeting enacts an identical measure by Aug. 15, which is seen as unlikely.

Juneau, accessible solely by water or air, is dwelling to the Mendenhall Glacier, a significant draw for the cruise passengers who arrive on multi-story ships towering over elements of the modest downtown skyline. Many residents of this metropolis of about 32,000 have issues about elevated visitors, congested trails and the frequent buzz of sight-seeing helicopters transporting guests to the Mendenhall and different glaciers.

Deborah Craig, who has lived in Juneau for many years, helps ship-free Saturdays. Craig, who lives throughout the channel from the place the ships dock, usually hears their early-morning fog horns and broadcast bulletins made to passengers which might be audible throughout the water.

The present “overwhelming” variety of guests diminishes what residents love a lot about Juneau, she mentioned.

“It’s about preserving the life-style that retains us in Juneau, which is about clear air, clear water, pristine setting and easy accessibility to trails, easy accessibility to water sports activities and nature,” she mentioned of the initiative.

“There’s this notion that some individuals are not welcoming of vacationers, and that’s not the case in any respect,” Craig mentioned. “It’s about quantity. It’s about an excessive amount of — too many in a brief time frame overwhelming a small neighborhood.”

The present cruise season runs from early April to late October.

Opponents of the initiative say limiting dockings will harm native companies that rely closely on tourism and will invite lawsuits. A voter-approved restrict on cruise passenger numbers in Bar Harbor, Maine, one other neighborhood with a major tourism financial system, was challenged in federal courtroom.

Laura McDonnell, a enterprise chief who owns Caribou Crossings, a present store in Juneau’s downtown vacationer core, mentioned she makes 98% of her annual income throughout the summer season season.

Tourism is about all of the “native companies that depend on cruise passengers and our place in the neighborhood,” mentioned McDonnell, who’s concerned in Defend Juneau’s Future, which opposes the initiative.

Some colleges not too long ago closed as a result of elements together with declining enrollment, whereas the regional financial system faces challenges, she mentioned.

“I feel that as a neighborhood, we actually want to have a look at what’s at stake for our financial system,” she mentioned. “We’re not ready to be shrinking our financial system.”

The cruise trade accounted for $375 million in direct spending in Juneau in 2023, most of that attributable to spending by passengers, in line with a report ready for the town by McKinley Analysis Group LLC.

After a two-year pandemic lull, cruise passenger numbers rose sharply in Juneau, hitting a report of greater than 1.6 million in 2023. Below this 12 months’s schedule, Sept. 21 would be the first day since early Could with no massive ships on the town.

The tourism debate is polarizing, and the town has been looking for a center floor, mentioned Alexandra Pierce, Juneau’s customer trade director. However she famous there additionally must be a regional answer.

If the Juneau initiative passes, it would affect different, smaller communities in southeast Alaska as a result of the ships, usually on journeys originating in Seattle or Vancouver, Canada, should go someplace if they’ll’t dock in Juneau on Saturdays, she mentioned.

Some residents in Sitka, south of Juneau, are within the early phases of making an attempt to restrict cruise visitation to that small, island neighborhood, which is close to a volcano.

Juneau and main cruise traces, together with Carnival Corp., Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Group, agreed to a restrict of 5 massive ships a day, which took impact this 12 months. They extra not too long ago signed a pact, set to take impact in 2026, looking for a day by day restrict of 16,000 cruise passengers Sundays by Fridays and 12,000 on Saturdays.

Pierce mentioned the general aim is to maintain complete cruise passenger visitation round 1.6 million, and to even out day by day numbers of tourists that may spike to about 18,000 on the busiest days and really feel “a bit suffocating.” Juneau historically has been the most well-liked cruise port within the state.

Various tasks round Juneau are anticipated to assist make current cruise numbers really feel much less impactful. These embrace plans for a gondola on the city-owned ski space and elevated customer capability on the Mendenhall Glacier recreation space, she mentioned.

Renée Limoge Reeve, vice chairman of presidency and neighborhood relations for the commerce group Cruise Strains Worldwide Affiliation Alaska, mentioned the agreements signed with the town have been the primary of their form in Alaska.

One of the best technique is “ongoing, direct dialogue with native communities” and dealing collectively in a means that additionally supplies a predictable supply of revenue for native companies, she mentioned.

Defend Juneau’s Future, led by native enterprise leaders, mentioned the success of the poll measure would imply a lack of gross sales tax income and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in direct spending by cruise passengers. The group was assured voters would reject the measure, its steering committee mentioned in an announcement.

Karla Hart, a sponsor of the initiative and frequent critic of the cruise trade, mentioned the specter of litigation has saved communities from taking steps to restrict cruise numbers previously. She was heartened by authorized wins this 12 months within the ongoing battle over the measure handed in Bar Harbor, a preferred vacation spot close to Maine’s Acadia Nationwide Park.

She believes the Juneau initiative will move.

“Each single particular person who’s going to vote has a lived expertise and information of how the cruise trade impacts their lives,” she mentioned.