Department estimates cruise passengers entering territory reached new levels last year.
After what the Department of Tourism believes to be record-setting cruise-ship driven traffic last year, the Yukon is forecasting another bustling summer tourism season.
Andy Cunningham, the marketing manager at the Klondike Visitors Association in Dawson City, said the town is readying for a busy time ahead.
“You can tell that the momentum is going up,” Cunningham said.
“It was a long and dark winter for many people in the Yukon. And so you can definitely see that energy of the excitement to be back.”
The territory’s Tourism Minister Jen Gehmair said both global and local markets are up.
“Yukon has responded to changes in the global travel perspectives and what’s happening geopolitically … the Yukon has put more of an emphasis on international markets, and the domestic market,” she said.
“Early indications are suggesting that Yukon is going to have a very good season. We know we’ve got cruise ship traffic coming in from Skagway.”
Data provided to CBC News from the territory’s tourism department suggests nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of all Skagway, Alaska, cruise-ship visitors entered the Yukon last year.
That’s when about 309,000 cruise passengers crossed into the territory, according to modelled estimates from the department. It doesn’t specifically track how many Skagway cruise passengers enter the Yukon, although the department said indicators strongly suggest the territory hit record levels in 2025.
The territory’s online tourism dashboard says border crossings at Fraser, B.C., “have surged due to more cruise ship passengers docking in Skagway, leading to a rise in day trips from Skagway.”
Based on the data provided to CBC News, the department said cruise traffic into the Yukon was up 10.7 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024.
In general, cruise volume reached an all-time high in 2025, which lines up with trends at the Canada-United States border crossing at Fraser. Yukon’s tourism department figures that’s how most cruise travellers enter the territory.
International border crossings increased, as did same-day trips over the border, in 2025 compared to the previous year, the department said. Bus arrivals went up, and more people also arrived by train last year.
The department said it conservatively assumes that 95 per cent of bus and train passengers coming through Fraser are connected to Skagway cruise excursions.
Canada: Inuvik, Canada, braces for surge in tourism, CBC News
Iceland: 10% of Iceland’s workforce employed in tourism, The Independent Barents Observer
Arctic: Roundup of COVID-19 responses around the Arctic, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Finland’s first coronavirus case confirmed in Lapland, Yle News
Greenland: COVID-19: Arctic science expedition postpones flight campaign after trainee tests positive for virus, Eye on the Arctic
