Large Cruise Ships Return to Alaska for First Time in 21 Months

The first large cruise ship of the 2021 Alaska cruise season has called on Ketchikan. Royal Caribbean Cruise’s Serenade of the Seas is the first large cruise ship to sail into Alaska waters and officially end the state’s cruise drought after nearly two years.

“It’s a happy day for Alaska’s tourism industry and communities that rely on tourism in Alaska,” says Alaska Travel Industry Association President and CEO Sarah Leonard. “This short cruise season means the difference between reopening or closing for good for so many small, locally owned businesses. We are grateful to our congressional delegation, governor, and legislators for their hard work to bring cruise ships back to the state this year. We are really proud that we could fight alongside them on behalf of our members and all of the statewide tourism businesses and support them in this recovery period.”

In 2019, more than 52,000 Alaskans depended on tourism for their income and 1 in 10 jobs was attributed to Alaska tourism. The industry was responsible for injecting $4.5 billion in economic activity in the state.

Typically, cruise lines bring more than half of Alaska’s annual visitors, and the visitor industry was on track to becoming Southeast Alaska’s largest economic sector in 2020, with an estimated 1.44 million visitors traveling by cruise and spending nearly $800 million in the region, according to Southeast by the Numbers 2019, an economic survey of the region prepared by Rain Coast Data.