Juneau voters have rejected the Ship-Free Saturday proposition, with 3,751 votes in favor of the initiative and 5,788 against as of Oct. 4, with several hundred more ballots still to count.
The Oct. 1 ballot proposition, the first of its kind in Alaska, attracted international media coverage. It would have banned cruise ships with accommodations for 250 or more passengers on Saturdays and also banned them on the Fourth of July.
Opponents of the measure, led by the cruise industry and tourism businesses, waged an expensive campaign, with $750,000 in total expenditures reported as of a week before election day. Supporters of the measure, meanwhile, reported raising $380.
“People are going to vote with what is going to impact them, and their families and their neighbors in the most positive way,” said Portland Sarantopoulos, campaign manager for the opposition group Protect Juneau’s Future.
In 2023, close to 1.7 million passengers came by cruise ship to Juneau — more than double of 21 years ago. The industry accounted for $375 million in direct spending, creating 3,850 direct and indirect jobs and providing over $40 million in municipal revenue, according to a report prepared by an economic consulting firm for the City and Borough of Juneau.
In addition to emphasizing the economic impacts of cruise tourism in Juneau, opponents of the ballot measure reminded voters of voluntary agreements the industry has reached with the city, such as a five-ship-per-day limit starting this year and a daily passenger limit starting in 2026.
“It’s clear that Juneau voters are really trying to give the current plans to manage tourism and manage the growth of tourism a chance,” Sarantopoulos said.
But Karla Hart, one of the lead advocates behind the petition drive that put the question on the ballot, said the lopsided money fight clearly influenced the results.
“I think that there was an extremely fear-based campaign — if you vote ‘yes’ you’re going to destroy the community, you’re going to put people out of work, you’re going to have to pay more on your property taxes, you’re going to give up public services,” she said. “But there’s no real knowledge that that is what would happen, or how it would play out. But they had the money to create that narrative.”
Hart said both the money spent by opponents as well as the widespread attention the ballot proposition received shows the concerns raised by Ship-Free Saturday supporters still need to be taken seriously.
“Hopefully this will lead to the city leadership taking steps to understand better the community issues, to acknowledge those issues and to address them.”
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