Tourism task force set to hear public testimony Thursday evening

12th meeting by group comes after five months of reviewing residents’ attitudes about visitors, whale watching and flightseeing, cruise operations, and Goldbelt’s dock plans

A couple walks along the downtown cruise ship dock on June 1, 2026. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Juneau residents will get a chance Thursday night to voice their opinions to local leaders about a tourism industry that has seen lots of growth and new policies in recent years, and is poised for more major changes during the coming few years.

Public testimony is the lone agenda topic for a Visitor Industry Task Force meeting scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, with participation also available via Zoom. People wanting to testify in person can sign up before the meeting starts, while people wanting to testify remotely must notify the city clerk’s office at 907-586-5278 before 4 p.m.

Thursday’s meeting will be the 12th by the task force since its first on Jan. 15. Topics at previous meetings have included results of an annual survey of residents that show attitudes toward tourism improving, reviews of flightseeing and whale watching operations, discussions with representatives from several major cruise ship companies, and a presentation a week ago about Goldbelt Inc.’s plans to expand Juneau’s ship capacity with a two-dock private cruise port on the west side of Douglas Island.

Previous task force meetings have also focused extensively on the employment and economic revenue the industry generates, including a cruise industry study showing 1.7 million passengers in Alaska in 2024 generated $1.2 billion in gross revenue, and 11,000 workers who earned a total of $817 million.

Cruise tourism in Juneau rebounded quickly from a shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic to record levels of 1.6 million or more visitors the past three years, with roughly 1.7 million expected this year. City and industry leaders have focused largely on reducing perceived impacts on residents agreeing to a voluntary limit of five large ships a day that took effect in 2024 and a daily cap of 16,000 passengers (12,000 on Saturdays) that took effect this year.

Goldbelt’s proposed dock projects 500,000 passengers per season, and discussions are increasingly suggesting those will be in addition to existing cruise traffic rather than shifting some of the current volume away from downtown.

McHugh Pierre, Goldbelt’s president and CEO, when asked about the five-ship limit during the task force meeting last week, told the task force last week "we would prefer the market drive what we can accomplish and allow for the private sector to solve the problems rather than the government coming in with a rule or regulation that is speculative or preemptive."

"We have plans and designs where we can create a solution to spread out to impact to generate and capture that economic opportunity, but make it better for us who live here, make it better for our visitors and permanently spread out this economy, while simultaneously increasing the tax base for the city," he said.

The task force, comprised of Juneau Assembly members and tourism industry stakeholders, is the second focusing on tourism formed by the city. The first in 2019-2020 represented what officials called the "first public engagement deep dive on tourism in over a decade." The current task force has extended its scheduled meetings until Oct. 22, with a second public testimony session scheduled Oct 15.

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