Juneau and Cruise Industry Set Limits for Cruise Ship Visits

With more than 660 port calls in Juneau scheduled for 2023, the City and Borough of Juneau and the cruise industry have agreed to limit how many large ships can call in the port starting in 2024. According to the Memorandum of Agreement, the threshold for “large” ships is no more than five.

According to a news item on Juneau.org, the agreement is based on recommendations established by the Visitor Industry Task Force (VITF) in 2020. The limits are “intended to provide a positive experience for the benefit of both residents and visitors, while providing a reliable market for the many local businesses that rely on the visitor industry, especially cruise.”

While the new limit will most likely not change the total number of port calls to the City (there are currently approximately 672 calls scheduled), it does distribute them more evenly throughout the week. A search by Travel Market Report, revealed several days in 2023 with six large ships scheduled to visit Juneau.

Collaboration with ports has been increasingly important as the cruise industry grows. The cruise industry previously worked with Venice to set limits on large ships there, and is in talks with cities such as Barcelona and Dubrovnik.

“Destination stewardship remains one of our highest priorities,” Renée Limoge Reeve, vice president of government and community relations at CLIA, is quoted as saying in the news item. “We support the VITF’s recommendations and can assure the community that our work together is strong.”

With cruise schedules set a year in advance, the development of the 2024 schedule was made with these guidelines in mind and meets the requirement of no more than five big ship calls per day.