A plan to limit cruise ship traffic in Juneau, Alaska won’t appear on the fall 2025 election ballot. The “Cruise Ship Limits” petition, which wanted to cap daily passenger numbers and shorten the cruise season, didn’t collect enough signatures by its May 19 deadline.
Petition Falls Short
The petition fell short of the 2,720 valid signatures needed from registered voters. This push by local groups to control the growing cruise ship industry in Alaska’s capital has been brewing for years. Juneau’s population is around 31,000.
The proposal included the following limitations in Juneau:
- A daily limit of five cruise ships.
- A yearly limit of 1.5 million cruise visitors.
- Daily visitor limits of 16,000 on most days and 12,000 on Saturdays.
- A shorter cruise season, from May to September (currently April to October).
It is not uncommon for Juneau to see as many as 20,000 cruise passengers a day during the peak times of the Alaskan cruise season.
Voters previously rejected a “Ship Free Saturday” idea, which aimed to ban large cruise ships on Saturdays. About 59% of Juneau voters said no in the October municipal election.
The recent petition that failed had proposed limiting cruise ship passengers to 12,000 a day on Saturdays. Only this number would be allowed to get off ships and enjoy the port. The only exception was for smaller ships with fewer than 200 people.
The plan to limit cruise ships in Juneau also wanted to make the cruise season much shorter, running only from May 1 through September 30. Currently, ships visit from mid-April to mid-October.
The petition noted that fewer ships come in the early and late parts of the season, so their effect on the city is already small. Unlike the previous effort, this petition didn’t try to ban ships on Saturdays.
Another Alaskan Port Faces Limitations
While Juneau’s latest attempt to limit cruises through a public vote has stopped, another city in Southeast Alaska, Sitka, is now facing similar questions.
Sitka is holding a special election, with early voting ending May 28. This vote looks at limiting cruise ships over 250 passengers, stopping them from visiting before May 1 and after September 30, and capping daily visitors at 4,500 people.
It also wants to limit visitors to 300,000 visitors per season and would limit ships to six days a week. The plan also includes rules for scheduling, permits, reporting, and making sure rules are followed.
The results in both Juneau and Sitka show the ongoing debate in many Alaskan port towns as Alaska remains one of the most popular cruise destinations on the planet.
As the discussion continues, both residents and local businesses who rely on cruise traffic are searching for good ways to manage tourism from cruise ships.
A banner seen in Juneau during the petition efforts clearly shows one side of this debate. It read, “Protect Juneau’s Future,” urging people to “decline to sign” the petition. The banner emphasized that “More than half our Saturdays are already ship free – AND THE REST = NEARLY 400 LOCAL JUNEAU JOBS.”
This message underscores the belief that limiting cruise ships could hurt Juneau’s economy and cost jobs, a major point for those who opposed the petition.