Juneau's 'ship-free Saturdays' ballot initiative called 'dangerous' to the local economy

Gift shop owner and Juneau Chamber of Commerce President Laura McDonnell decried a 'ship-free Saturdays' ballot initiative as 'dangerous and detrimental to our economy.'

The measure that would turn away ships with 250 or more passengers on Saturdays and on July 4 has been certified for the Oct. 1 ballot with more than the 2,359 signatures required.

Born and raised in Juneau, McDonnell is the owner of Caribou Crossings, a shop that employs locals and sells goods from 60 Alaska residents. She said 98% of her business is cruise-related and 'that's true of many other businesses.'

According to McDonnell, the $36m in lost revenues to Juneau would be a 10% chunk of cruise income next year. She based her numbers on the 2025 ship schedule, calculating that more than 137,000 passengers are set to arrive on Saturdays, and city data that each cruise visitor spends at least $232.

She said this would be a blow to a community that's in 'economic crisis' due to factors including the loss of nearly 900 public sector jobs associated with Juneau's role as state capital and the fishing industry having its 'worst year ever on record.'

Tourism, McDonnell argued, is a bright spot that's developed to take the place of lost timber, mining and government work. 'People said we did fine before tourism, but we cannot rely on those other jobs any longer,' she said, adding tourism gives hope and employment to young people.   

Protect Juneau's Future

McDonnell's also a member of Protect Juneau's Future, which she called a grassroots coalition of local business owners, tribal leaders, Native corporations and other community members formed in response to a trio of proposed cruise ballot intiatives in 2021 — including ship-free Saturdays — that failed to gather enough signatures to go to a vote then.

She put these and other initiatives down to a 'core group of five people' unhappy with cruising's impact on their enjoyment of life and recreation.

Petitioners' perspective

The affidavit initiating the petition said cruise season — stretching 192 days this year and without pause for 142 days — 'adversely impacts Juneau residents' health and quality of life.'

The petitioners charge the local government is not doing enough to manage cruise tourism and leaders and industry have 'failed to balance the economic benefits to some against the economic and other harms of the many imposed by the cruise tourism industry.'

They allege air, noise and light pollution and traffic from cruise ships, tour buses, floatplanes, helicopters and boats, and propose 'ship-free Saturdays' would give businesses serving the industry 'one predictable day per week to schedule maintenance and time off ... [resulting] in safer, cleaner and better operations and happier employees' while also enhancing the experience of non-ship visitors.

'Ship-free Saturdays sounds innocuous' but would have 'unintended consequences,' McDonnell countered. She believes 'once the community has had the chance to really understand all the facts and ramifications,' the ballot initiative will 'fail by a large margin.'

Record 1.6m cruisers in 2023

Juneau shot up to a record more than 1.6m cruise visitors in 2023, and Alexandra Pierce, visitor industry director for the City and Borough of Juneau, has indicated the goal is to keep numbers at about 1.6m.

In 2023, Juneau and the cruise industry signed off on a cap of five ships per day and last month a memorandum of agreement set a limit of 16,000 lower berths per day, with 12,000 on Saturdays.

This agreement includes a commitment to meet annually to optimize the schedule, review visitor numbers and discuss community goals.

Both moves sprang from a Visitor Industry Task Force that's been in place for a number of years.

Lawsuits threatened

Pierce told Seatrade Cruise News several cruise industry parties have threatened to sue if the ballot initiative passes. She could not identify them or share details at this time.

Banning cruise calls on Saturdays 'would be disruptive to the regional schedule and could have impacts on neighboring communities,' Pierce said. 'We're not sure what those are yet.'

For cruise lines, it may not be as simple as having a sea day or going to another port. This isn't the Mediterranean with abundant alternatives.

'We already have fewer ports than other major destinations and that creates challenges,' Pierce noted.

Striking a balance

She added: 'Ports all over the world are grappling with the balance between local economic impacts and quality of life issues. Juneau has long been on the forefront of that discussion and will continue to be. We continue to work hard on a number of other initiatives to strike that balance.'

On Monday Seatrade Cruise News reached out to Alaska's two biggest cruise operators, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises, for their reactions and potential impacts should Juneau ban ships on Saturdays and did not get a response.