Alaska: By Land, or by Sea
Venture off the cruise ship on your next visit to Alaska.
Sept. 7, 2007 — -- With its vast, remote and largely untamed areas, Alaska lives up to its nickname, "The Last Frontier State." For many, a visit to the spectacular state is the trip of a lifetime -- offering unparalleled views of scenic landscapes and wildlife.
And most tourists who visit Alaska see its sights from the deck of a cruise ship.
"It's really cool because we'll be seeing whales as we are cruising along," cruise passenger Jason Ekes said.
Of the 1.7 million visitors who went to Alaska this summer, a record 1 million were on cruises, making cruise lines a large part of the state's billion-dollar tourism industry.
"I think one of the things that makes taking a cruise to Alaska so attractive is that it is so easy to book a cruise, and everything is so well laid out and organized," said Lorene Palmer of the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau.
That state's appeal has led to a very lucrative industry for Alaska. Last year alone, cruise passengers spent about $650 million shoreside.
Now, a move is under way to try to share that wealth by getting more of the tourists off the boats, out of the ports and onto the land. But capturing a larger share of the nearly 2 million cruise visitors won't be easy.
The Alaskan cruise industry spends up to $70 million a year in promotion, a number that would be nearly impossible for the tiny Kenai Peninsula tourism council to match.
Every summer, the legendary salmon runs draw fishermen from around the world to the Kenai River in South Central Alaska.
There are two salmon spawning runs on the Kenai every summer, bringing about 100,000 fishermen to fish the river between the months of June and August every year -- big numbers for fishermen perhaps, but just a fraction of what the cruise lines bring in.
So to attract more visitors to these great outdoors, tourism officials have launched a marketing blitz, dubbing the Kenai River "Alaska's playground."
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