Alaska achieved a new record for cruise ship tourism this summer, surpassing its 2019 numbers.
Figures released at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce meeting revealed that the state's capital city welcomed 1.65 million cruise ship passengers this year. Most tourists in Alaska arrive via cruise ships, making Juneau's statistics a reliable representation of the industry's performance.
These newly published data signals a robust rebound from the challenges posed by the COVID crisis. In 2022, Juneau recorded 1.2 million cruise tourists, while in 2021, only 124,600 tourists visited. The year 2020 saw a mere 48 tourists, and 2019 held the previous record with 1.33 million visitors.
It's important to note that these figures are based on passenger head tax data calculated by the City and Borough of Juneau and represent "manifested passenger numbers." They do not account for the thousands of crew members on board the ships, and they don't differentiate between passengers who disembark in the city and those who remain on board.
According to a panel survey of 370 Southeast Alaska business owners, 73% had a positive view of the region's economy, marking the highest level of optimism since the survey's inception in 2010. Additionally, nearly 80% of participants expressed positive expectations for 2024.
Tourism plays a significant role in Southeast Alaska's economy, accounting for 15% of its jobs. However, it contributes to only 9% of its total wages, primarily due to the seasonal nature of most tourism jobs during the cruise ship season, which runs from April through October. Government work, spanning state, federal, local, and tribal sectors, constitutes over a third of the region's jobs and wages, serving as the dominant economic sector.
Despite the increase in tourist numbers compared to 2019, the count of tourism-related jobs in Southeast Alaska remains below the pre-pandemic levels, as do wages. In 2019, tourism-related employment represented 12% of all wages in Southeast Alaska before facing declines during the pandemic.
Workforce shortages persist across the region, with challenges in recruiting construction workers being particularly pronounced.
As the volume of passengers has grown, so have concerns about traffic and overcrowding. In response, the city has agreed with the cruise industry to limit the number of ships arriving per day, allowing a maximum of five large ships starting next year. Preliminary data suggests that 50 ships have planned 660 voyages to Southeast Alaska in 2024, with the first ship scheduled to arrive in Juneau on April 8 and the last one on October 26. This extension of the record-long cruise ship season in 2023 is expected to bring another record of 1.7 million tourists to the capital city in 2024.