Huna Totem has built up to four ports in Alaska and is extending its reach into the Caribbean, which is a transformation that Howard Sherman, president, Huna Totem Tourism Group, said reflects both the industry’s growth and Huna Totem’s evolving ambitions.

“If you go back and look before COVID, it was a single destination, which was Icy Strait Point, that Huna Totem was involved with, and had been involved with for almost 20 years at that time,” Sherman said.

The result has been rapid diversification.

“We’ve gone from just one destination in a few years to opening up Whittier as a turnaround port, Klawock as a brand new port, and now we’re ready to move forward in Juneau with the Tidelines lease,” Sherman said. “It’s gone from one port to four ports in a very short period of time.”

Whittier: A Modular Turnaround

Whittier, located just 60 miles from Anchorage, has emerged as a key open-jaw gateway into Central Alaska.

Huna Totem constructed a 30,000-square-foot terminal there designed around flexibility rather than fixed capacity.

“It’s ice-free all year long, and serviced by commercial, fishing, and Navy traffic as well,” Sherman said. “The benefit of the terminal is it’s very modular, so we’re able to do whatever each individual cruise line needs in terms of setup.”

Sherman contrasted the approach with traditional port design.

Klawock: Building Slowly, With Intention

Klawock represents a longer-term bet.

Huna Totem rehabilitated an existing logging dock and has been using it as a tender port, beginning with luxury lines as a way to introduce the destination gradually, to cruise lines and local communities alike.

“We’re going up from just a few calls to about 30 calls to over 50 calls this year,” Sherman said. “It’s a great way to develop the infrastructure and the core product needed.”

The path to a fixed pier runs through a major-line commitment.

“Once we get a commitment from a big cruise line, then it makes sense to build a fixed pier for them,” Sherman said. “Until then, the approach we’ve been taking is going out to the luxury lines, which is a great way to introduce the product to the local communities as well. They get the more experienced, well-heeled travelers more interested in cultural tourism.”

Klawock also exemplifies Huna Totem’s broader development philosophy: keeping infrastructure away from the existing commercial core.

“We’re not building right into the commercial center of town,” Sherman said. “When you look at ports around the world you see cruise ports build up along with the city, where you’re dumping people right into the center of town. That’s what causes congestion.”

At Klawock, Huna Totem is developing on native land previously used for logging, away from local fishing piers.

“They get all the economic benefits without all the disruptions.”

Alaska Market: More Ships, More Entrants

Sherman described the Alaska market as operating at unprecedented scale. New entrants this year include MSC, Virgin Voyages, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, a second Disney ship, and expanded Princess capacity.

“For years in the cruise industry in the summer, your best market was either the Med, depending upon the year, or Alaska,” Sherman said. “But Alaska had less variability, the Med was a little more up and down depending upon geopolitics. Alaska’s been just a safe, clean, experiential-type destination. It’s a bucket list destination.”

The new entrants are also shifting the mix at Icy Strait Point.

The three major cruise companies, Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, historically accounted for 90 to 95 percent of Huna Totem’s business.

“They were 95 percent of our business last year,” Sherman said. “For this year, each of them has grown, but now they’re only 80 percent of our business.

“The new guys coming in want to tell the story their own way. They’re looking for the experiential angle, because that’s what’s important to people today, going to experience a destination rather than just going to a T-shirt shop and taking a bus tour.”

In addition is Klawock Island, which is an Indigenous-owned cruise destination, developed as a joint venture between Alaska Native corporations Huna Totem Corporation, Doyon, Limited, and Klawock Heenya.

Into the Caribbean

Huna Totem’s expansion extends beyond Alaska. The company has formed a partnership with Chukka, a major Caribbean tour operator, targeting the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, with more announcements expected.

“We started looking for expansion into our business, something that works in the winter, because obviously we’re a summer destination and we don’t want to just go into hibernation,” Sherman said.

“We came to know Chukka over the course of years, and we found that culturally and in their values, they are aligned with ours. So we started this partnership, which has only grown ever since, first the Virgin Islands, and now into the Bahamas. I think we’re going to have more announcements in those regions coming soon.”

The Caribbean work is focused on tours and experiences rather than port infrastructure, and may include beach clubs, shore excursions, and land-based programming.

“As cruise lines increasingly go to a lot of the same destinations and those destinations become overcrowded, I’m not seeing new destinations being built to accommodate that demand,” he said. “The only place it’s being done to any large degree is in the Caribbean by the cruise lines themselves, with the private islands. And to some extent, we’re trying to do that in Alaska too.”

Sherman indicated that Huna Totem’s destination development model is drawing interest well beyond its home region, potentially including the Pacific Northwest.

“There are people talking to us in different places,” he said. “It just becomes a matter of how much we can do in terms of time and attention for a small organization.”