- July 13, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
An Alaska state flag blows in the wind at the Robert B. Atwood Building in Anchorage, Alaska.
David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images
These are tough times in Skagway, Alaska, population 1,183.
“We’re in hard core survival mode,” Mayor Andrew Cremata told CNBC.
In a normal summer, the Southeast Alaska town would be teeming with tourists from the cruise ships sailing the Inside Passage. Residents could drive 15 miles up the Yukon Highway into Canada to run their basic errands, or they could hop on a state-run ferry to the next town over, Haines.
But this year, the cruise ships have just started running again. Cremata is hoping Skagway will see 100,000 passengers this year; in 2019 they had 1.1 million. The border to Canada remains closed to non-essential traffic, and the ferries, part of the Alaska Marine Highway System, are plagued by budget cuts.
“Just getting your family down to go see a dentist or doctor, when that becomes burdensome or overly expensive,…
