KODIAK \u2014 The Alaska village of Larsen Bay \u2014 with a population of 87 \u2014 will have its first luxury cruise ship visit this summer.<\/p>\n
Kodiak city harbormaster Lon White said it\u2019s the first time he can remember a cruise liner visiting one of Kodiak\u2019s outlying villages, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Village Mayor Alice Aga said the ship\u2019s stop will allow residents to supplement their income at a time when the Icicle Seafoods processing plant will be closed. Jobs in the village depend almost entirely on tribal and local government administration when the plant is closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community is really excited,\u201d Aga said. \u201cThis is a high-end cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SilverSea cruise will be a 12-day Alaska trip costing $9,900 per person. It includes luxury ocean-view suites, a spa and fitness center, fine-dining restaurants and a personal butler.<\/p>\n
Aga said village leadership is working with SilverSea to plan activities for the tourists. Officials are considering a tour of the village and fish cannery, a lesson in the preparation of traditional foods, a hike to the village reservoir, a kayak trip and a demonstration of how to process salmon and deer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just hoping that we can pull something together that\u2019s presentable and represents our community,\u201d Aga said.<\/p>\n
Aimee Williams, director of Discover Kodiak, said developing a tourism program on short notice in a village where none existed before is a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re struggling a little bit, because we don\u2019t have a lot of touristy things to do over there,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re working with them step-by-step.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Kodiak, cruise ships are a common sight during the summer. This year, 17 port calls are planned between May 4 and October 5, the Daily Mirror reported.<\/p>\n
White said visitors often rent cars or pile into cabs to stock up on supplies for the next leg of the voyage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a line at the liquor store out the door and around the corner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The villages have historically not benefited as much from the island\u2019s summer tourism boom. Williams said she hopes the visit is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s exciting if the villages want to get involved in stuff like this,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to tie them into tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aga said the cruise company has expressed interest in returning in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KODIAK \u2014 The Alaska village of Larsen Bay \u2014 with a population of 87 \u2014 will have its first luxury cruise ship visit this summer. Kodiak city harbormaster Lon White said it\u2019s the first time he can remember a cruise liner visiting one of Kodiak\u2019s outlying villages, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday. Village Mayor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":23985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23984"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}