As summer leisure travel ramps up, travel industry insiders predict the rental car shortage currently gripping the U.S. is likely to worsen before it gets better.
Alaska & Yukon Tours is a travel agency based out of Juneau, Alaska Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Nate Vallier, president and owner of Alaska & Yukon Tours, talked to News of the North about their estimate for the effects of the proposed ballot initiatives that would limit cruise ships in Juneau. For this report, they used 2022 cruise schedules.
The first initiative would limit cruise ships from coming to Juneau from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Vallier said that if this were to pass this October, there would be immediate effects for the 2022 cruise ship season. It would affect roughly 32 percent of the cruise traffic, which represents 37 percent of the passengers, Vallier said. He added that the way the schedules are set up in 2022, ships are aiming to arrive by 1 p.m. and if they were forced to leave by 7 p.m., that would give them less than 8 hours in port. That means a very short window for them to be in Juneau, he said.
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Cruise ships in Juneau in July 2016. If anti-cruise initiatives pass, Juneau would accept only about 348,330 passengers in 2026, or 78% less than what s scheduled for 2022. Photo Credit: Iv Nikolny/Shutterstock.com
While travel groups and politicians from Florida to Alaska are sounding the alarm about the dire economic ramifications of the prolonged ban on cruising, concurrent movements are on the rise to limit cruise tourism when the industry sets sail again.
Key West voters in November decisively approved measures to cap cruise ship size and limit how many cruisers can go ashore.
This month, Juneau citizens put forth a similar proposal that, if signed by 3,000 residents, will be voted upon in a referendum in October. The measures would limit cruise ship size, capacity and time in port.