Alaska cruise passengers to exceed 1 million in 2016

More than 1 million cruise passengers will visit Alaska this year for the first time since 2009, according to CLIA Alaska.

An Alberta couple arriving Sept. 22 in Juneau on a Holland America Line ship became the ones to break through the 1 million-passenger barrier.

In 2009, the destination saw 1,020,000 passengers, but traffic dipped as much as 15% after that as cruise lines put more ships in Europe during the summer and Alaska slowly attempted to recover from a $48 per-person head tax that was substantially reduced starting in 2010.

This year CLIA estimates that 1,014,000 passengers will visit. The peak year for Alaska visitors was 2008 with 1,032,000 arrivals.

Holland America Line recently announced that it would be adding a seventh ship to the Alaska market in 2017. Seabourn also announced that it will be returning to Alaska in 2017 for the first time in 15 years.