Alaska
A tiny Arctic village in Alaska is trying to revive its polar bear tourism industry
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Late every summer, hulking white bears gather outside a tiny Alaska Native village on the edge of the continent, far above the Arctic Circle, to feast on whale carcasses left behind by hunters and to wait for the deep cold to freeze the sea.
It’s a spectacle that once brought 1,000 or more tourists each year to Kaktovik, the only settlement in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in a phenomenon sometimes called “last chance tourism” — a chance to see magnificent sights and creatures before climate change renders them extinct.
The COVID-19 pandemic and an order from the federal government halting boat tours to see the bears largely ended Kaktovik’s polar bear tourism amid concerns that the tiny village was being overrun by outsiders.
But Kaktovik leaders are now hoping to revive it, saying it could be worth millions to the local economy and give residents another source of income — provided the village can set guidelines that protect its way of life and the bears themselves.
“We definitely see the benefit for tourism,” said Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp, which owns 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) of land. “The thing is, it can’t be run like it was before.”
Visitors overwhelm a tiny village
As far back as the early 1980s, anyone in Kaktovik with a boat and knowledge of the waters could take a few tourists out to watch the bears as they lumbered across the flat, treeless barrier islands just off the coast or tore into the ribs of a bowhead whale left by subsistence hunters.
Tourism in Kaktovik soared in the years after federal officials declared polar bears a threatened species in 2008. The rapid warming of the Arctic is melting the sea ice that the bears use to hunt seals, and scientists have said that most polar bears could be wiped out by the end of the century.
This photo provided by Roger MacKertich shows polar bears lying on a barrier island Sept. 18, 2019, near Kaktovik, Alaska. Credit: AP/Roger MacKertich
As visitation boomed, the federal government imposed regulations requiring tour operators to have permits and insurance, and that began to squeeze locals out of the industry, Lampe said. Larger out-of-town operators moved in, and before long, crowds of tourists were coming to Kaktovik — a village of about 250 people — during the six-week viewing season.
The town’s two hotels and restaurants lost out on some business when large operators began flying tourists in from Fairbanks or Anchorage for day trips. Locals complained that tourists gawked at them or traipsed through their yards.
Small plane capacity became an issue, with residents sometimes battling tourists to get on flights to or from larger cities for medical appointments, forcing those left stranded in the cities to get expensive hotel rooms for the night.
Renewing polar bear tourism, with changes
When the pandemic struck, Kaktovik paused visitation. Then in 2021, the federal government, which manages polar bears, halted boat tours, mostly over concerns about how tourists were affecting bear behavior and overrunning the town.
Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, poses for a portrait outside his home in Kaktovik, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Credit: AP/Lindsey Wasson
Alaska Native leaders are now in talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address those concerns and reignite the industry, perhaps as early as 2027. The agency told The Associated Press in a statement that it’s working with Kaktovik “to ensure that any future opportunities are managed in a way that prioritizes visitor safety, resource protection, and community input.”
Among the changes Kaktovik leaders want to see is a limit on how long a boat can sit in the water near the bears. Too long, Lampe said, and the bears get used to humans — making for a dangerous situation when bears wander into town looking for food.
During the height of the tourism boom, it became tougher to haze bears out of town, even with the town’s bear patrol shooting at them with nonlethal rounds. The patrol had to kill about three or four bears per year, compared with maybe one per year before the boom, Lampe said.
“Our safety was at risk,” Lampe said.
In 2023, a 24-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son were killed in a polar bear attack in Wales, in far western Alaska. It was the first fatal polar bear attack in nearly 30 years in Alaska, the only U.S. state home to the species.
Since the boat tours in Kaktovik were halted, the bears once again seem more fearful of humans, Lampe said.
Encouraging respectful visits in the Arctic
Polar bear tourism coincides with Kaktovik’s subsistence whaling season. When a crew lands a whale, it’s usually butchered on a nearby beach. While the community encourages visitors to watch or even help, some were recording or taking pictures without permission, which is considered disrespectful, Lampe said.
Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association, suggested that Kaktovik market itself as a two- or three-day experience.
Native communities that are ready for tourists “want them to come and be educated and walk away with a greater understanding of our people and our way of life and our culture,” she said.
Roger and Sonia MacKertich of Australia were looking for the best spot on the planet to view polar bears in the wild when they came to Kaktovik in September 2019. They spent several days in the village, took a walking tour led by an elder and bought souvenirs made by local artists, including a hoodie featuring a polar bear.
For Roger MacKertich, a professional wildlife photographer based in Sydney, the highlight was the boat tours to see bears roaming on the barrier islands or taking a dip in the water. The bears paid them no attention.
“That’s nearly as good as it gets,” he said.
Choosing a place to settle in Alaska usually comes down to which trade-offs work. Road system or off-road system. Cruise-ship economy or fishing-fleet economy. Anchorage commute or Inside Passage isolation. The seven towns ahead reach across Southcentral, the Kenai Peninsula, and Southeast Alaska. Each runs a working economy, hospital access, and the kind of community infrastructure that supports day-to-day life through the long winters. Median home prices range from $405,000 in Ketchikan to $688,800 in Sitka.
Homer
Homer sits at the end of the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula, about a five-hour drive south of Anchorage. The town has earned the “Halibut Fishing Capital of the World” tagline and runs one of the state’s largest charter fleets out of the Homer Spit, the 4.5-mile gravel bar that extends into Kachemak Bay. The Pratt Museum on Bartlett Street covers regional natural and cultural history, including the Lower Cook Inlet ecosystems and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill response. Bishop’s Beach gives walkers direct access to the bay shoreline.
The local economy runs on commercial fishing, tourism, the arts community, and small-scale agriculture in the warmer microclimate that the Kachemak Bay creates. The median home price runs about $538,800. The South Peninsula Hospital handles regional medical needs, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District operates Homer High School and West Homer Elementary. The Bunnell Street Arts Center on Old Town Bishop’s Beach Road runs gallery rotations and music events year-round.
Seward
Seward sits at the head of Resurrection Bay on the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive south of Anchorage on the Seward Highway. The town is the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, which protects roughly 700 square miles of glaciated coastline along the Gulf of Alaska. Day boat tours from the Seward harbor reach the Aialik Glacier and the Holgate Glacier from late spring through early fall.
The median home price runs about $462,000, more accessible than larger Alaskan cities even though Seward draws the largest summer cruise-ship volume on the peninsula. The economy runs on tourism, marine research at the Alaska SeaLife Center, fishing, and public service. Seward Community Health Center handles primary care; the Providence Seward Medical Center on First Avenue covers acute care and emergency. The Mount Marathon Race, held every July 4 since 1915, sends runners up and down the 3,022-foot Mount Marathon directly behind town and is one of the oldest mountain races in the United States.
Sitka
Sitka sits on the west side of Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago, with Tlingit roots going back thousands of years and a Russian colonial history from the founding of the Redoubt Saint Michael settlement in 1799. In 1808, the Russians established Sitka (then New Archangel) as the new capital of Russian America, moving the seat of government away from Kodiak. On October 18, 1867, Sitka was the site of the formal handover of Alaska to the United States, ending Russian colonial rule. The Sitka National Historical Park preserves the site of the 1804 Battle of Sitka along with one of the most accessible totem pole collections in Alaska.
Housing is on the higher end at a median price of about $688,800. Sitka’s economy supports fishing, healthcare, education, and tourism, and the city operates as a borough that covers most of Baranof Island. The Sitka School District serves about 1,100 students. SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center on Halibut Point Road provides regional healthcare. The Alaska Raptor Center rehabilitates eagles, owls, and hawks across a 17-acre forested campus, and the Baranof Castle State Historic Site marks the bluff where the 1867 transfer ceremony took place.
Ketchikan
As Alaska’s southernmost city and the first stop on the Inside Passage cruise route, Ketchikan sits at the southern tip of Revillagigedo Island. The town runs one of the largest commercial salmon harvests in Southeast Alaska. With a median home price around $405,000, Ketchikan is moderately affordable by Alaskan standards. The town is accessible only by sea or air, and the Ketchikan International Airport sits on neighboring Gravina Island, reached by a short ferry crossing.
Ketchikan’s economy runs on fishing, seafood processing, and a cruise-season tourism industry that brings about a million visitors per year between May and September. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District operates Ketchikan High School, and the University of Alaska Southeast runs a satellite campus in town. PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center provides full medical services. Recreation centers on the Deer Mountain trail, historic Creek Street (the former red-light district on pilings over Ketchikan Creek), and the Totem Bight State Historical Park with restored and replica Tlingit and Haida totem poles. The Blueberry Arts Festival on the first weekend of August anchors the local summer calendar.
Petersburg
Petersburg sits on the north end of Mitkof Island, halfway between Juneau and Ketchikan along the Inside Passage. The town is known as “Little Norway” because Norwegian immigrant Peter Buschmann founded the settlement in 1897, drawing Scandinavian fishermen who shaped the town’s identity. Petersburg was incorporated in 1910 and still celebrates Norwegian Constitution Day on May 17 with the multi-day Little Norway Festival, the longest Syttende Mai celebration of any Norwegian-American community in the country. Sing Lee Alley holds rosemaling-decorated wooden buildings and the Sons of Norway Hall, built in 1912 on pilings over the water.
Fishing and seafood processing drive the local economy; Petersburg is consistently ranked among the top 25 fishing ports in the United States by dollar value. With a median home price of about $422,500, Petersburg runs moderately affordable by Alaskan standards. Students are served by the Petersburg School District, and Petersburg Medical Center operates a 24/7 emergency department. The Bojer Wikan Fisherman’s Memorial Park at the harbor holds the Valhalla, a miniature Viking ship, as a memorial to local fishermen lost at sea.
Kenai
Kenai sits at the mouth of the Kenai River on the western side of the Kenai Peninsula, with views across Cook Inlet to the active volcanoes of Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna. The Kenai River produces the largest sport king salmon runs in the world; the world-record king salmon, weighing 97 pounds 4 ounces, was caught in the river by Les Anderson in May 1985 and the record still stands. The Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church, built between 1894 and 1895, is a National Historic Landmark and one of the oldest Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska.
The median home price runs about $429,000. The local economy is fueled by oil and gas, commercial fishing, tourism, and remote-work transplants. Kenai Central High School serves area students, and Central Peninsula Hospital sits a short drive away in Soldotna. Weekends often run on fishing trips along the Kenai River, hiking nearby trails, or watching beluga whales along Cook Inlet from the Erik Hansen Scout Park bluff. The Kenai River Festival in June brings people together at the riverfront.
Wasilla
Wasilla sits in the heart of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley about 45 minutes north of Anchorage on the Parks Highway. The city holds about 10,000 residents, the largest city outside Anchorage in the Mat-Su Borough, with views of the Talkeetna Mountains to the north and Pioneer Peak to the east. With a median home price of about $449,000, Wasilla runs notably more affordable than Anchorage proper and has drawn commuters, young families, and remote workers across the past decade.
The economy runs on construction, retail, logistics, healthcare, and small businesses. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District supports the area’s educational needs, while Mat-Su Regional Medical Center handles healthcare for the valley. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race holds its ceremonial start in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March, with the official restart in Willow the next day, about 30 minutes north of Wasilla on the Parks Highway. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Headquarters is in Wasilla and houses a museum about the race. Lake Lucille Park and Iditapark add walking trails and lake access close to downtown.
Choosing The Right Alaska Town
The seven split roughly into three regional clusters. The Kenai Peninsula produces Homer, Seward, and Kenai. The Inside Passage produces Sitka, Ketchikan, and Petersburg. The Mat-Su Valley produces Wasilla. Road-system access goes to the Kenai Peninsula and Mat-Su towns; the Southeast Alaska towns are reachable only by air or sea. Median home prices run from about $405,000 in Ketchikan to about $688,800 in Sitka. The right choice depends on whether the move favors road connections to Anchorage, the year-round Inside Passage rhythm, or the marine economy of the Kenai Peninsula.
At Icy Strait Point, visitors can spot whales and eagles while supporting a small Alaska community.
How cruise tourism could help and hurt Alaska’s environment
Although Alaskans rely on revenue tourism cruise ships bring in, some locals are raising concerns on the impact of tourism on Alaska’s environment.
Icy Strait Point in Hoonah, Alaska, offers a rare kind of cruise stop — one where nature, culture, and community take center stage. It was also specifically developed with tourists in mind.
Built on Huna Tlingit land near Hoonah, this privately owned destination was designed to spread visitors across 23,000 acres of wilderness rather than overwhelm the town. The result is a place where travelers can see bald eagles, sea lions, and crashing waves instead of traffic and tour buses.
Beyond its dramatic scenery, Icy Strait Point generates about $20 million in annual economic impact for a community of roughly 900 people, supporting hundreds of jobs, making it a model for how tourism can benefit residents while preserving Alaska’s character.
Why it matters
Located on Huna Tlingit land, Icy Strait Point shows how tourism can support small communities while preserving their identity. Places like this reflect a broader American story of stewardship, self-determination, and economic opportunity.
According to Icy Strait Point’s Senior Vice President, Tyler Hackman, the destination generates “$20 million a year of positive economic impact on a community of 900 people,” creating jobs while allowing Hoonah to remain distinctly itself.
What to see today
Unlike many cruise ports, Icy Strait Point feels remarkably undeveloped.
“This place is mostly untouched,” Hackman said. “When a ship comes into a dock here, somebody can be standing on the top deck of the ship, and you don’t see a parking lot, you don’t see a bus, you don’t see a vehicle.”
Visitors can take a gondola to the mountaintop for sweeping views, then follow Hackman’s advice and head to the beach in front of the historic cannery. There, they can search for shells, dip their hands in Alaska’s icy waters, and take in snowcapped peaks on the horizon — and maybe spot a humpback whale or an orca.
Ask a local
For a sweet stop with a bigger purpose, visit Lil’ Gen’s Mini-Doughnuts.
Operated by The Salvation Army, the shop serves warm mini-doughnuts to cruise visitors all summer. The impact extends far beyond dessert: Hackman said that in 2025, profits from the shop helped fund “$130,000 worth of food to the local community.”
It’s a delicious way to support Hoonah residents directly. Try the lemon sugaring.
Plan your visit
- Best time: May through September during the Alaska cruise season.
- Hours/admission: Open seasonally. Access is included with most cruise itineraries.
- Getting there: Primarily reached by cruise ship from Southeast Alaska itineraries.
- Learn more: https://icystraitpoint.com/
Governor Mike Dunleavy today announced the appointment of Stephen Cox as his new Counsel to the Governor. The appointment comes after the legislature’s decision to not confirm him as attorney general, despite his extensive legal and public policy experience and proven record of defending Alaska’s interests both at home and on the national level. Cox’s responsibilities will be to advise Governor Dunleavy on a wide range of legal, regulatory, and constitutional matters affecting the State of Alaska.
Governor Dunleavy also appointed Cori Mills acting attorney general for the Alaska Department of Law. Mills has been with the department for 14 years and most recently served as deputy attorney general.
“Stephen Cox has a strong understanding of Alaska law and the challenges facing our state,” said Governor Dunleavy. “His experience, professionalism, and commitment to public service make him a valuable asset as Counsel to the Governor. I look forward to working with Stephen as we continue advancing policies that strengthen Alaska’s economy, uphold the rule of law, and serve the people of our state.”
As Counsel to the Governor, Cox will continue to work closely with the Department of Law and other executive branch departments to provide counsel on policy initiatives, legislation, and executive actions.
“I am honored to serve Governor Dunleavy and the people of Alaska in this new role,” said Stephen Cox. “I look forward to continue supporting the administration’s efforts to promote responsible resource development, governance and opportunities for Alaskans across the state.”
Cox assumes his new role effective today.
-
Los Angeles, Ca5 minutes agoRip tides, high surf forecast for Los Angeles beaches this weekend
-
Detroit, MI29 minutes agoWhat time is Pistons Game 7 vs Cavs? Date, tickets in Detroit
-
San Francisco, CA41 minutes agoSan Francisco prepares for Bay to Breakers run
-
Dallas, TX47 minutes agoSouthwest lays off about 75 employees in latest restructuring move
-
Miami, FL53 minutes agoMark Matthews Announces Commitment – Chooses Between Georgia, Miami, and Others
-
Boston, MA59 minutes agoAliyah Boston Leaves Fever Game With Lower Leg Injury
-
Denver, CO1 hour agoNorthbound I-25 closed between Denver and Colorado Springs after fatal multi-vehicle crash
-
Seattle, WA1 hour agoHealth officials track fourth King County resident tied to MV Hondius Andes hantavirus