Cruise ships loom over Skagway’s Broadway Street. (Courtesy Skagway CVB)
The first cruise ship of the 2022 season is slated to arrive in Skagway on April 26 and starting in early May, the community is expecting three to four cruise ships a day. After two years with little to no tourism, there are some major unknowns, like how full the ships will be, and if land tours will be allowed to enter Canada. Meanwhile, Skagway businesses are struggling to figure out if it makes sense for them to open, how many staff they’ll need if they do, and most importantly, how to get those staff to come to Southeast Alaska in today’s tight labor market.
Skagway is the 18th most visited cruise ship port in the world, but over the last two years, visitor numbers have plummeted. The port community drew over a million visitors per summer pre-pandemic, but close to zero in 2020, and well under 100,000 in 2021. Many owners have had to shutter their businesses to survive the lack of customers and those that have stayed open have operated with a reduced staff.
But with cruise ship visitors potentially climbing back to near pre-COVID numbers, many businesses are ramping back up too.
One of Skagway’s largest employers is the Westmark Hotel. They have two full restaurants on-site, an upstairs lounge, plus the town’s largest hotel. Their general manager Jim Sager says he doesn’t know whether he’s fully staffed at this point.
“I don’t think anybody truly knows exactly what the 2022 season has in store for us,” said Sager.
He says it all depends on the number of visitors that actually show up.
“If we anticipate in the neighborhood of 60, to 70% of what the cruise ships’ capacity is, and that’s where it comes in, then I’m probably fully staffed. But if things come in closer to 90% or 100% of what the ships’ capacity are, then perhaps I’m a bit understaffed,” said Sager.
Jim Sager has found it easier than some other local businesses to find workers. Beth Smith owns a bar, restaurant, and a hotel in Skagway. She says she’s only staffed at about 25% at her restaurant, the Station Bar and Grill, though typically she’d be fully staffed by this point in the season. She says that the increased wages she’ll need to pay to attract employees will force her to raise prices.
“Our prices are going to have to go up and that’s kind of scary as well, because I think everyone in town is gonna see that,” said Smith.
On the retail side, Nicholle Chandler owns two souvenir gift shops. She says she was lucky to lure back a previous manager with a big salary increase, but she’s struggling to fill the rest of her open positions.
“At this point, I’m just hoping that more people apply, and I’m anticipating that being college students,” said Chandler.
She expects to be short-staffed during the shoulder seasons but hopes those college students fill in the gaps by mid-summer.
Meanwhile, some potential employees are seeing this season as a boon. Natasha Kraus worked as a tour guide for one season before the pandemic, then found other temporary jobs for the last two years. She says she spoke with half a dozen employers before settling on the same company she had worked with in 2019.
“I definitely feel wanted. I had a few options. Ultimately, I actually had to make my decision on who I was going to work with based on housing,” said Kraus.
She says she’s getting a big pay increase, housing at a reduced rate, an end-of-season bonus, and the chance for more bonuses based on performance reviews.
Stacy Gould from Chilkoot Charters says she’s got plenty of employees waiting for her call in the lower 48 to get back to work, but she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to open up at all. That’s because of Canadian border restrictions that would make it nearly impossible for the company to drive tours into nearby Canada.
“Staffing is not the issue for us. It’s the COVID testing at the border. So we’re diligently keeping our ear to the ground, and waiting for any sign that Canada will lift those testing requirements. When that happens, we’re good to go,” said Gould.
Liz Lavoie from the Red Onion Saloon says her team of historic brothel actors is in place thanks to an industry site called Backstage. But the restaurant side of the business is still short several employees.
“Because we didn’t have a full staff last year, or the year before… Usually, we have, you know, a fairly large returning crew. So we’re just kind of starting with a light bench,” said Lavoie.
There are almost 20 open jobs posted on Skagway’s municipal website, from clinic jobs to trail crew to a museum assistant. Last week the mayor suggested to the assembly that they should consider increasing wages $5/hour across the board to stay competitive in the market. That would raise an entry-level employee’s wage from about $10/hour to about $15/hour.
Neal Fried is an economist with the Alaska Department of Labor’s research section. He says Alaska’s labor market is closely aligned with the national labor market, which is showing low unemployment numbers. He says it’ll be a challenge for businesses to attract seasonal workers who’ve found full-time work since the pandemic started.
“Of course, that also depends on what the pay is and how that compares to the pay closer to home and that’s gotten more difficult because Alaska is just not paying the premiums that we used to. And you know nationally, wages have gone up significantly,” said Fried.
With only seven weeks left before the first ship arrives, there are far more questions than answers regarding this summer’s cruise season.
