Alaska Cruises Are Mega-Popular. Some Locals Aren’t Happy.

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.”

The Alaskan cruise gold rush

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.

Residents have pushed back

“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.