Juneau sets another cruise tourism record with 1,733,016 passengers, up 2.6% from last year

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Increase comes during first year of voluntary daily passenger limits, which city tourism manager says are meant to reduce adverse impacts rather than lower visitor totals

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

A new daily limit on cruise passengers didn’t keep Juneau from setting a new record high season total for the fourth year in a row.

A total of 1,733,016 passengers arrived on large cruise ships during this year’s season that ended Tuesday, according to Alexandra Pierce, tourism manager for the City and Borough of Juneau, in an email to the Juneau Independent on Wednesday. That’s about 2.6% more than the 1,688,738 passengers in 2025, and a continuing upward trend from 1,677,935 in 2024 and 1,638,902 in 2023.

"It’s not particularly different from expectations," Pierce wrote, noting "we usually run a little over our projected lower berth capacity. We were at 104% this year which is a little high."

Ships this year were at 99% of lower-berth capacity in April, 101% in May, 106% in June, 109% in July, 105% in August and 99% in September, according to the October 2026 issue of The Tide Line newsletter published by CBJ’s Docks and Harbors Department. Capacity is based on two people per cabin, so rates over 100% are possible due to extra people on pull-out beds, bunks and cradles.

This year was the first Juneau had a voluntary daily passenger limit in effect of 16,000 people (12,000 people on Saturdays). Pierce said before this year’s season it was possible another record high would be set and, in her email Wednesday, noted the intent of the limit was to reduce impacts rather than passengers.

"The goal with passenger limits is to avoid explosive growth and we’re looking at relatively flat numbers for 2027 and 2028," she wrote. "We can expect minor, single digit variations in our visitor numbers due to changes in ship deployment, what capacity ships are sailing at, etc. but we are happy that the limits are keeping our numbers under control."

"The passenger limits weren’t intended to reduce the overall number of visitors, but to level things out to create a sense of predictability and stability for residents and businesses," Pierce added. "With lower berth capacity between 1.6 and 1.7 million from 2023 to 2028, we believe we have achieved that."

The daily limit did have some impacts on Juneau’s sailing schedule as well as for other Southeast Alaska ports. Royal Caribbean International reduced its sailings to Alaska’s capital this year — and is scheduled to do so again next year — opting instead for destinations such as Icy Strait Point near Hoonah, which saw a significant increase in passengers this year. That led to speculation early this year that Ketchikan could pass Juneau in passenger arrivals for the first time ever.

It appears that didn’t happen, with Ketchikan projecting about 1.67 million passengers this year, said Laurie Booyse, the city’s tourism manager, in an interview Wednesday. But that is well above the roughly 1.5 million passengers that city saw last year. Ketchikan also had more port calls by ships compared to a year ago, but the most significant reason for this year’s passenger increase is "there's also much bigger ships," Booyse said.

Juneau’s cruise passenger capacity beyond 2027 is a contentious issue due to Goldbelt Inc.’s plans to open a private two-port dock on land it owns on the west coast of Douglas Island for the 2028 season. Juneau has a voluntary five-ship-a-day limit reached with the cruise industry in 2024, but at issue is whether that limit will include the new dock (and thus potentially divert 40% of cruise traffic away from downtown) or if seven ships a day will be the new norm.

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