The first cruise ship of the 2025 tourism season, the Norwegian Bliss, is set to sail into Gastineau Channel and arrive in downtown Juneau Monday afternoon.
The season kicks off as the Trump Administration’s tariffs shake the global economy and federal firings leave dozens of residents in Juneau without jobs.
Juneau’s Tourism Director Alix Pierce said that puts the city’s tourism industry in a state of uncertainty.
“We have an economy that’s in a different place than it was last year, a lot of our fellow residents, our friends and colleagues, lost jobs that they thought were long-term career-type jobs in our community,” she said. “I think it’s a bit of a wait and see in terms of how it impacts the number of visitors that we have.”
For the past two seasons, the capital city has seen more cruise passengers visit than ever before — about 1.7 million passengers visited last year.
Pierce said this year is expected to yield a similar number, but it’s unclear if the sour relationship between the U.S. and Canada might impact people’s willingness to travel, and if the new tariffs could dampen spending. According to the most recent data, cruise ship passengers spent $320 million in Juneau in 2023.
The Mendenhall Glacier is Juneau’s most popular tourist attraction, drawing more than 1 million people last year. There’s been staffing uncertainty at the glacier’s visitor center since widespread federal firings in February left it with just one Forest Service employee.
As Monday approaches, the U.S. Forest Service released a plan to use existing employees from its Juneau offices to fill vacant positions. They’ll be working alongside employees from partner organizations that have had a presence at the glacier previously.
Pierce said having the visitor center up and operating is critical to the industry and local residents.
“Obviously a lot of small businesses rely on the glacier as their income source. We have nonprofits that operate out there and receive a lot of their funding through the visitors out there,” she said. “We’re concerned about it as a public entity that has a major economic impact on our community.”
Tension surrounding cruise ship tourism and its growth persists in Juneau. Last week, the Assembly voted to approve a tidelands lease for a fifth cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau. That same day, local advocates filed a ballot petition to put in place harder limits on tourism’s growth.
Once the season begins, about one to three ships will come to Juneau per week before ramping up to three to five ships per day by mid-May. Ships will continue to arrive almost every day until their numbers dwindle in October. The season ends Oct. 14.
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