The residents of Sitka in Alaska are set to vote on imposing a limit on the daily number of cruise passengers arriving in the town.
According to a report by KTOO, enough signatures were collected to put a cruise limit ballot in a special election set for this spring.
The project aims to set an annual cap of 300,000 cruise passengers, as well as a daily limit of 4,500 guests.
Port calls would also be limited to six days a week, while cruise ships would need to obtain permits for docking in Sitka.
The city would be responsible for administering the new permits, as well as fining cruise ships that violate the new rules.
Cruise ships carrying 12 to 250 passengers are exempt from the limits, as are ferries.
Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson told KTOO that her office certified the petition on March 17, after which enough signatures were gathered by petition organizers.
According to city regulations, a proposed measure needs to collect 613 valid signatures in a 90-day window in order to be voted on. Organizers got more than that in just four days, she told the local website.
The special election is currently expected to take place on Friday, May 30, 2025, pending Sitka Assembly approval.
According to KTOO, the initiative was proposed by Small Town SOUL, a not-for-profit organization that said its mission is to “preserve the unique small-town character of Sitka.”
“We support cruise ship tourism at levels that balance the needs of residents and locally owned and operated businesses,” the organizers stated on its website.
Small Town SOUL cited recent growth in passenger arrivals in Sitka, which recently reached record-breaking levels.
“Historically, the most cruise visitors Sitka hosted prior to 2022 was 289,753 visitors in 2008. In 2022, Sitka received one-third more than that—383,000 visitors, and in 2023, we were inundated with twice as much—585,000 visitors,” the organization said, noting that “the numbers are too high.”
“Too many cruise visitors impact our lives and damage our reputation as a high-quality place to visit,” the site said.
