The residents of the Alaskan town of Sitka have rejected a proposal to impose a daily limit on the number of arriving cruise passengers.

According to KCAW, over 70 percent of the voters said no to the project, which was part of a special election held on May 28, 2025.

As Cruise Industry News previously reported, the ballot aimed at setting 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.

Nearly 3,000 town residents voted in the election, which became the third largest turnout for any municipal election in Sitka since 2018, KCAW said.

In an interview with the local media outlet, Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal Owner Chris McGraw celebrated the election result.

“I think it shows that the community understands the benefits of cruise tourism and that the proposed ballot initiative wasn’t the right answer at this time,” he said.

McGraw led the opposition to the proposal, KCAW said, creating a group called Safeguard Sitka’s Future.

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.”

One of the goals of the group was to balance the needs of residents and locally owned and operated businesses.

One of the proposition authors, Larry Edwards, told KCAW that the voting was an important chance to discuss the issue despite its results.

Edwards said voters were faced with a very narrow choice on a complicated issue and noted that the question of “what number of cruise guests the town really wants” is still to be answered.

A second petition endorser, Klaudia Leccese, told the website that the ballot gave locals a better understanding of the issue.

“Hopefully things will work out in the way that’s best for Sitka over the course of time,” she said.