The state of Alaska broke its 2019 document for cruise ship tourism this summer time, with Alaska’s capital metropolis recording 1.65 million passengers this 12 months, in keeping with figures launched Thursday at a gathering of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce.

Most Alaska vacationers arrive by way of cruise ship, and Juneau sees all however a handful of the cruise ships that go to Alaska every summer time, making the town’s figures a proxy for the trade as an entire.

The newly printed figures mark a rebound — after which some — from the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

Juneau recorded 1.2 million cruise ship vacationers in 2022, 124,600 in 2021, 48 in 2020, and 1.33 million in 2019. The 2019 determine was the earlier document.

“This can be a 23% enhance from our greatest season ever earlier than,” stated Meilani Schijvens, director of Rain Coast Information, the economics agency that printed the numbers.

“It ended up being a extremely, actually robust season right here in Southeast Alaska,” Schijvens stated.

The figures, based mostly on per-passenger head tax figures calculated by the Metropolis and Borough of Juneau, had been launched as a part of an annual report commissioned by Southeast Convention, the regional financial growth group for Southeast Alaska.

They embrace solely “manifested passenger numbers,” stated Juneau Port Director Carl Uchytil, in order that they don’t embrace the 1000’s of crew aboard ship. The figures additionally don’t differentiate between passengers who disembark within the metropolis and people who keep aboard ship.

Brian Holst, director of the Juneau Financial Improvement Council, stated the figures are “completely” excellent news for his group “as a result of financial sectors like tourism have come again strong” for the reason that pandemic emergency.

“Companies are reporting both an excellent 12 months or an awesome 12 months,” he stated.

An annual panel survey of 370 Southeast Alaska enterprise house owners discovered 73% had a constructive view of the area’s economic system, the best mark for the reason that survey started in 2010.

Virtually 80% of survey individuals stated they’ve constructive expectations for 2024 as properly.

Tourism accounts for 15% of Southeast Alaska’s jobs however solely 9% of its wages; most tourism jobs are seasonal, occurring through the cruise ship season that runs from April via October.

Authorities work — state, federal, native and tribal — accounts for greater than a 3rd of the area’s jobs and wages and is the main financial sector.

Whereas the variety of visiting vacationers is above what it was in 2019, the variety of tourism-related jobs in Southeast Alaska stays beneath what it was within the prior document 12 months, as do wages. Tourism-related employment accounted for 12% of all wages in Southeast Alaska in 2019 earlier than declining through the pandemic.

Employers throughout the area proceed to report a workforce scarcity, with development employees specifically being onerous to come back by.

“Actually, we might use much more overseas employees coming into the USA and coming into Alaska to bolster our economic system,” Schijvens stated.

In line with her agency’s survey, greater than half of the area’s enterprise leaders stated an absence of housing has value them workers.

Survey respondents additionally stated the price and availability of kid care was a significant factor of their lack of ability to rent and retain employees.

Over the previous 12 years, the value of a mean single household residence in Juneau has risen 52%, 22 proportion factors above inflation throughout that interval, Schjivens stated. Common wages within the metropolis rose 38%, 8 factors above inflation, throughout the identical interval.

Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon stated of the 2023 cruise ship season, “We’re pleased with the numbers for the tourism numbers, however on the similar time, we perceive that the group has felt a little bit stress this 12 months.”

Considerations about site visitors and overcrowding have risen together with passenger quantity, and the town has reached a voluntary settlement with the cruise trade to cap the variety of ships per day.

Not more than 5 massive ships might be permitted on any given day, beginning subsequent 12 months. In line with preliminary information shared by Schjivens, 50 ships have deliberate a mixed 660 voyages to Southeast Alaska in 2024, with the primary ship due in Juneau April 8, and the final on Oct. 26.

That’s an extension of this 12 months’s record-long cruise ship season, which started in mid-April, and Schjivens expects 1.7 million vacationers within the capital metropolis subsequent 12 months, one other document.

Initially printed by the Alaska Beacon, an impartial, nonpartisan information group that covers Alaska state authorities.