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Tourism Official: No Major Impact on Yukon Tourism From Alaska Ferry Strike

Thursday, 1 August 2019 14:07

Many travelers are now going through the Yukon on territorial highways due to the ongoing Alaskan ferry strike. (Photo courtesy of Yukon government).

Despite thousands of people having to alter their travel arrangements from the Alaska Marine Ferry System strike, Director of Tourism Pierre Germain says there has been no major impact from the strike on territorial tourism numbers.

Director of Tourism Pierre Germain says there have been no major impact on territorial tourism numbers with the Alaska Ferry strike that has entered it's second week.

Despite 30 Alaskan coastal communities being directly impacted by the standoff and thousands of passengers having to alter their travel arrangements,  Germain says his department only saw a slight  uptick in information requests from travellers during the first few days of the strike.

"I can tell you when the strike first happened, our visitors centre staff initially fielded a number of requests for information and advice within the first few days. Since that time, the number of calls has substantially reduced. Right now, we're not seeing or hearing anything in our visitors centres or community partners that would indicate that there's been a downturn in visitors as a result from the strike. 

Germain says tourism numbers in the territory could actually be increasing from the strike as more people travel down or up through the Yukon using territorial highways to get to their final destination.

"I am hearing that in some of the ports in Haines and Skagway, as visitors are traveling there to board ferries, the towns are starting to fill up there a little bit. As people continue to look at the schedule and see when (operations) might reemerge, That means, some visitors are making the decision to take the highway south. That means they would be traveling through the Yukon which is always a benefit to us."

400 Alaskan Marine Highway system workers are involved in the strike and it's not clear when another contract with ferry workers could be signed.

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