Attitudes about tourism improve in annual survey of Juneau residents following record cruise season

Positive-negative response of 31%-10% compares to 29%-13% a year ago; plurality of 39% saying industry has both positive and negative impacts is similar to 42% last year

Tom Paul and John Fontanella busk on the Juneau Seawalk on July 28, 2025. (Natalie Buttner / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

A long-term increase in negative attitudes about tourism showed a reversal in the draft version of an annual survey of residents published Wednesday by the City and Borough of Juneau.

However, a slim majority of people answering the survey say the city still isn’t doing enough to manage impacts.

A total of 31% of respondents said tourism has positive impacts and 10% negative impacts, compared to respective results of 29% and 13% in last year’s survey. A plurality of respondents — 39% — said tourism has both positive and negative impacts, similar to last year’s tally of 42%.

"Those that said both positive and negative impacts were asked whether the positive outweighed the negative or vice versa; these respondents were more likely to say positive impacts outweigh the negative (43%) than negative impacts outweigh the positive (31%); another 22% said neither/neutral," the study notes.

The survey reports 18% of respondents stated the industry has no impacts on them and 1% answered "don’t know."

The report is scheduled to be presented to Juneau’s Visitor Industry Task Force at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Similar surveys have been conducted in 1995, 1998, 2002, 2006 and annually since 2021. The results of the 2002 survey included 40% positive and 6% negative responses from residents.

Juneau has gotten three straight years of record cruise tourism with 1.6 million or more visitors, and a roughly similar number is projected during the coming year. City officials have sought to mitigate impacts with voluntary agreements with the cruise industry that include a limit of five large ships a day and a daily limit of 16,000 passengers (12,000 on Saturdays).

This year’s survey asks residents what impacts they experienced from nine different types of activities.

"Respondents were most commonly affected (somewhat and very affected combined) by crowding on sidewalks downtown (70%), crowding at Mendenhall Glacier (66%), and vehicle congestion downtown (59%)," the report states.

Ranking lowest were vehicle congestion on North Douglas (16%) and Auke Bay (33%), air emissions from cruise ships (41%) and crowding on trails (44%).

"When asked to rate how CBJ is managing the impacts of the visitor industry, the most common response is that CBJ is not doing enough (53%), followed by just the right amount (33%)," the study notes. "Responses have remained consistent over the last several years, with all changes within 3%."

The highest management priorities were keeping the five-ship limit (60% of respondents ranked it a high priority), managing impacts from tours on residents (58%), keeping the daily passenger cap (56%) and reducing traffic congestion (50%), according to the report. Ranking lowest were completing the Seawalk from the whale statue to the Rock Dump (26%), and shore power and supporting Travel Juneau in attracting conventions (35% each).

City management of cruise tourism is likely to be significantly affected by Goldbelt Inc.’s plans to open a private two-berth cruise port on land it owns on the west coast of Douglas Island in 2028. A total of 56% of survey respondents said they feel it is important the city to develop an official master plan for the back side of

Douglas due to Goldbelt’s project, while 24% said it is somewhat important, and 16% not important.

The survey of 520 randomly selected Juneau residents was conducted by the McKinley Research Group between Nov. 5 and 25, and has a margin of error of 4.3%.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.