Tourism
RSSTourism in Alaska is the cruise, wildlife and outdoor visitor industry that shapes coastal and interior communities. It spans cruise ship capacity, port infrastructure, visitor taxes, and the Denali and aurora-viewing economies. Guided hunting, fishing and whale watching round out the sector.
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Seward fish and chips restaurant seeks the city's first seasonal tourism liquor license
A planned fish and chips restaurant on Seward's Third Avenue is asking the state for the city's first seasonal tourism liquor license, which would let it serve beer and wine from May through October. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is scheduled to take up the request Tuesday.
Seward is allowed two population-based restaurant liquor licenses, a number capped by its population of about 2,224, and none are available, according to a staff memo to the board. The tourism license is counted by visitors instead, and it's available only in communities of 40,000 or fewer that get more than 4,000 visitors a year.
The state allows one for every 1,500 visitors a day, found by dividing a town's yearly visitor count by 182. Licensing Examiner Shawn Kowalski ran Seward's roughly 140,700 cruise passengers in 2025 through that formula and got about 773 a day, roughly half the threshold. That rounds up to one license.
The 2025 count was down 36% from 220,200 passengers in 2024, according to a statewide visitor report prepared for the Alaska Travel Industry Association and included in the board's packet. Whatever count the board accepts will apply to any other application for this license in Seward this year, the memo said.
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About Tourism
Tourism in Alaska takes in the cruise, wildlife and outdoor visitor industry that shapes many coastal and interior communities. It spans cruise ship visits, whale watching, glacier and national park visits, heli-skiing and guided fishing and hunting.
Cruise ships call at port towns such as Juneau, Ketchikan, Seward, Sitka, Kodiak, Haines and Whittier, while parks such as Denali and Glacier Bay draw visitors inland and to the water. Alaska Native corporations such as Huna Totem own docks and tour businesses, and the National Park Service awards concessions inside the parks.
Recurring questions include how many cruise passengers a town can take in, who builds and runs cruise docks, shore power and wastewater rules for ships, crowding on downtown streets, oversight of whale-watching operators, and how much local governments spend on visitor marketing and tourism boards.
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