Cruise ships are relatively new to Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. And not all residents are happy to have them.
About 20 community members spoke to City of Craig leaders at a town hall in the high school’s auditorium, sharing concerns about the future of rising tourism on the island.
The gathering was hosted by the city to discuss tourism and the new tourism advisory committee — which was formed about two months ago. Mayor Kasey Smith said it has been contentious at best. Members of the board were appointed, rather than elected, and one has since since stepped down.
“There was a lot of opposition that started the committee too early,” Smith said. “We should have done something like this with community outreach. Well, we don’t have much time. We’ve only got about another six months.”
Resident Andy Deering calls himself a “tourism refugee.” He and his wife have lived in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan before they moved to Prince of Wales almost 20 years ago. He said they saw each town taken over by tourism. That’s why they left.
They don’t want that to happen to Craig.
“We’ve been all over the world, and we’ve seen what happens when big, you know, industrial tourism comes to a place,” Deering said. “It does take over. I mean, it really does. And we’re doing everything we can to try to prevent it from happening in Craig.”
Residents said the town’s infrastructure is not built for thousands of people, which can show up on just one ship. Sidewalks are scarce, intersections are staggered, and there aren’t any stoplights. And many people like it that way. They don’t want to be inundated by money coming in from other communities or get pushed out by rising costs.
Deering said even though there are economic benefits to tourism, that shouldn’t be the most important factor in making decisions about it.
“My quality of life is not for sale at any price,” Deering said. “I’m here because I love the quality of life here in Craig.”
Other town hall attendees see cruise ship tourism as something to get ahead of and manage so it doesn’t take over.
Craig City Council member Chanel McKinley said they need to set rules in place for tourism now so the community isn’t undermined by big businesses.
“For tourism, when it comes — because it will come — [we should] have a good stronghold in place to where we feel like we still have a stronghold in our community,” McKinley said.
The cruise ships that have been harboring in Klawock on the western side of the island, with tourists coming to Craig, have been relatively smaller ships with capacities of around 1,000 people. Craig isn’t a port town and doesn’t have a head count tax like Ketchikan or Juneau. There aren’t many storefronts or restaurants for tourists to spend their money, so the direct profit is limited.
But the number of ships that are coming to Prince of Wales is rapidly increasing. There were six ships that docked at Port Klawock in 2024, and this last summer there were 23 ships. Next year, they’re expecting almost 60.
Craig Mayor Kasey Smith said that’s why he felt they needed to start a committee and get ahead of things like charter fishermen coming in with tourists and competing with local commercial fishermen.
“Those are things that are going to be looked at that are out of our control in Craig,” Smith said. “I mean, basically the only thing that we can do is go back and respectfully ask the cruise ships, you know, this is what our community wants and this is what it wants to look like.”
Smith said the city has been trying out an access permit program for tourists to use trails, and also lets the city generate revenue to maintain them.
And he wants to hear other input, too.
The committee and town hall attendees seemed to agree that going forward, the most important thing is to get community input through a questionnaire mailed to all residents.
Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately reported that there were five members appointed to the tourism advisory committee. Four members were appointed to the committee, and one has since stepped down, leaving two open seats.
