Summers in Wrangell are marked by the constant stream of visitors walking from the dock into town, coming here aboard intimate ships of maybe 200 passengers to much larger vessels like the Queen Elizabeth carrying almost 2,100 visitors.

The 2027 cruise ship season will see less large vessel traffic than the previous year and, in turn, a reduction in cruise ship visitors.

A report shared at the borough’s Oct. 28 tourism stakeholders meeting noted that the Queen Elizabeth will not operate in Alaska waters next season. The company is moving the ship to Mediterranean summer cruises.

The ship made half a dozen stops in Wrangell this past summer, its third year in a row calling on the community. Its loss will knock about 12,000 tourists from next year’s count.

The draft ship schedule shared at the meeting counts 55,028 cruise ship berths for the 2027 season, but there is at least one noticeable gap in that number. American Cruise Lines, which will run three ships in Southeast next year, plans 43 stops in Wrangell, Alexa Paolella, the Connecticut-based company’s public relations manager, said in an email on Nov. 6.

The three ships would add more than 6,500 berths to the schedule, boosting the total past 61,000.

Borough officials said they were awaiting confirmation from American Cruise Lines to add its ships to the schedule.

Even with those visitors, next summer is looking to come in under the 75,000 berths that called on Wrangell in 2026, though the number could rise as the schedule for next summer is finalized.

While a slower season may make for a more manageable tourist season in town, it also decreases revenue brought in by larger vessels.

“We will see it most prominently in the Port Development Fund and the Commercial Passenger Vessel Fund,” said Economic Development Director Kate Thomas. “Because those larger ships pay more to tie up, and we get money from the state as a pass-through for the head tax.”  

The state commercial passenger vessel “head tax” applies to ships with more than 250 passengers traveling through Alaska waters for more than one night. Wrangell receives $5 per guest of the $34.50 tax collected by the state. 

Thomas said it is hard to put a direct dollar amount on the lost revenue because itineraries change from year to year, but the “head tax” brought in just over $127,000 in Fiscal Year 2026. 

“In short, it absolutely will (have an impact). What revenue stream and what dollar figure, you know, I can’t say specifically,” Thomas said. “Some businesses won’t feel it at all. Some businesses will feel it slightly. Some businesses may feel it more because it’s retail driven.”  

Only three of the currently scheduled 70 Wrangell port calls for next year are expected to be ships of 2,000 berths or more; the rest will be under 1,500.

Thomas said the borough prepares for fluctuations in visitors, so they will not necessarily change any of the currently planned projects.

“To a certain degree, we do have to recalibrate what our priorities are, and we do that year over year,” she said.