After eight trips in one season, woman becomes 1 millionth cruise passenger to visit Juneau

Wendy Yoisten, a resident of St. Albert, Canada, stepped off a cruise ship in Juneau for the eighth time this season Thursday morning. As familiar as she’s grown with her “favorite port” in Alaska, disembarking was quite different this time.

A small welcoming party — including the ship’s captain and John Binkley, president of the Cruise Lines International Association’s Alaska affiliate — greeted her as she walked onto the dock. The cause for celebration: Yoisten is the millionth cruise passenger to visit Juneau this year.

“They didn’t say anything on the boat; they just told us to dress warm,” she said. “We knew something was happening. We didn’t know what.”

After the initial surprise next to the MS Zaandam, the Holland America ship on which she arrived, Yoisten and her husband, John, joined an ongoing celebration near the visitor center.

Members of the Yees Ku Oo dance group sang and pounded drums as the Yoistens made their way off the docks. Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch, several city Assembly members and a group of about 30 other people all welcomed the Yoistens to town.

Though some might consider the Yoistens lucky, they had a better chance than most at winning the millionth-passenger lotto, so to speak.

They have cruised to Juneau eight times this season alone, Wendy and John Yoisten said.

“They probably think we’re locals,” Wendy said of the State Library, Archives, and Museum employees. The SLAM is one of the Yoistens’ favorite Juneau attractions, and it was where they planned to spend their afternoon Thursday.

Binkley presented Wendy Yoisten with a gift basket, a medal and a glass trophy commemorating the occasion.

“This really marks a change in the industry and cruising in Alaska,” Binkley said speaking to the Yoistens and the rest of the people gathered around, standing in the rain.

This year marks the first since 2009 during which Juneau — and the rest of Alaska — hosted more than 1 million cruise ship passengers.

Binkley said the number of cruise ship passengers visiting Alaska dropped by about 15 percent between 2009 and 2010. During that short time frame, the total number of cruise passengers dipped from more than 1 million to about 850,000.

Binkley primarily attributes the sharp decrease and subsequent, but slow, increase in cruise passengers during the past seven years to state head tax fluctuation. In 2006, voters approved a ballot measure imposing a statewide head tax of $46 per person on cruise passengers visiting Alaska.

Four years later, then-Gov. Sean Parnell signed into law legislation that lowered that head tax $34.50 per person after facing pressure from major cruise lines, such as Carnival Cruises, which argued that the $46 head tax was too high.

Thanks in large part to Parnell, Binkley said the Alaska Legislature also relaxed regulations, which encouraged cruise lines to deploy more ships to Alaska again.

The decline in Alaska’s cruise passenger numbers also roughly coincides with the great recession, during which luxury spending fell off across the nation.

Though Juneau was the only port in Alaska to hit the million-passenger mark this year, other ports may see more than one million passengers again in the near future.

The major cruise lines determine where they will deploy their ships two years in advance, so cruise companies are setting their schedules for 2018. Though nothing is set in stone yet, Binkley expects the number of cruise passengers visiting Alaska to continue climbing in the coming years. Holland America, for example, is deploying an additional ship to Alaska next year, he said.

Though cruising can at times be a controversial topic in towns such as Juneau, which are heavily impacted by the influx of people during the cruise season, the industry’s impact on the city’s economy is indisputable.

“Cruise passengers make up 20 percent of our sales tax; that’s what this means to the city,” Mayor Koelsch said, explaining the importance of increasing cruise traffic in Juneau. “Plus, it breathes vigor into the city.”

• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.