The past three summers have been lean for Alaska cruise ship tourism, but Wrangell’s 2023 draft cruise schedule shows a substantial gain in traffic compared to the 2019 pre-pandemic season.
There are 132 scheduled stops this summer, with a combined maximum passenger capacity of 28,830 — about a 40% increase from the 2022 capacity of 20,088 and a 35% jump from 2019.
Before the pandemic shut down the industry, Wrangell’s cruise tourism numbers were on a steady climb, from 5,500 in 2011, 10,000 in 2015 and 15,000 in 2018, according to statistics compiled for the borough.
“People are pretty comfortable with travel to Alaska right now,” said Brenda Schwartz-Yeager, co-owner of Alaska Charters and Adventures and member of the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau.
For people in the Lower 48, a trip to Alaska is distant enough to feel like a true vacation, without the risks inherent in international travel, Schwartz-Yeager continued. The state is “a place for people to finally be able to stretch their travel legs again. A lot of ships have been positioned from elsewhere in the world to the West Coast for that reason. We have … (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, we have infrastructure.”
“Alaska anticipates cruise ship visitors in record numbers in 2023,” the Alaska Department of Labor reported in January.
An increase in capacity does not mean that same precise number of passengers will visit. Cruise ships don’t necessarily operate at full capacity and not all passengers get off the boat at each stop, borough Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore explained in an email.
Wrangell’s season will open May 11 with the arrival of the 200-passenger Ocean Victory; the final ship will be the 450-passenger Seabourn Odyssey on Oct. 8.
At 749 feet long and with accommodations for 930 passengers, the Viking Orion is the largest ship on the summer schedule and will make its first ever stop in Wrangell on June 12.
In 2022, the Roald Amundsen, a first-of-its-kind hybrid cruise ship powered by battery energy and fossil fuels, made its first stop in Wrangell on May 23 as part of its inaugural voyage to Southeast. This summer, two 530-passenger hybrid ships will visit town — the Fridjof Hansen on Sept. 20 and the Roald Amundsen on June 29, July 6 and July 31. Both ships are owned by the Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten.
Throughout the summer, there will be stretches in which multiple ships are docked or anchored at once, bringing the possibility of large crowds in town. On June 1, the Ocean Victory, Regatta and Baranof Dream will all stop in Wrangell, with a combined capacity of 933. On July 16, the Regatta and Star Breeze will arrive, with a combined capacity of 996.
In 2020, no cruise ships visited the island since COVID-19 protocols shut down traffic and Canada banned passenger vessels from its waters. During the 2021 season, with pandemic protections in place, Congress approved legislation that allowed some cruise ships to resume operations in the second half of the season. Most of those were likely at 50% to 75% capacity in 2021, according to anecdotal estimates from Rushmore.
Schwartz-Yeager cautioned against inferring long-term trends from the ever-fluctuating cruise ship schedule numbers. Just because a larger number of boats are visiting Wrangell this year doesn’t mean that the increase can be projected into the future. “We have up years and down years,” she said. “You can’t assume if there are more ships this year that there will be more next year. It goes in waves.”
The community does not have much control over which ships visit town and when, she explained. “It seems to happen at a level without us.”
At its Jan. 12 meeting, the borough assembly established a new marketing and community development coordinator position, which officials hope will provide the community with more control over Wrangell’s tourism landscape. The coordinator will gather data about who visits Wrangell and promote the community to the kind of high-value tourism that the borough hopes to attract — independent travelers, who generally stay longer and spend more at local shops.
“Cruising is not going anywhere,” said Caitlyn Cardinell, executive director of the Stikine River Jet Boat Association in a previous interview. “If we want to influence how this is going to look for us, we need to get out in front of it.
She suggested marketing the community toward small, upscale ships, which tend to carry wealthier, more environmentally conscious travelers who might be interested in taking expensive local tours. The average passenger capacity for cruise ships visiting Wrangell in recent years is between 200 and 250.
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