JUNEAU CARES FOR LOCALS

TRAVEL JUNEAU’S MISSION IS TO MARKET JUNEAU TO INDEPENDENT TRAVELERS, GROUPS, AND MEETING PLANNERS. AS PART OF THAT MISSION, WE WORK TOGETHER WITH OUR 220+  PARTNERS IN MARKETING JUNEAU AS A DESTINATION.

Juneau is a full-time home to the Travel Juneau staff and almost all of our partner businesses. We’re your friends and neighbors, we participate in our community and want the best for our corner of Alaska.

After last summer’s almost complete bust from COVID-19, Juneau needs a strategy to stay top of mind with visitors as the world slowly regains confidence in travel; further, we want the community to face the 2021 season with confidence knowing we care for the health and safety of our residents. The visitor industry will look very different for the next several years and the Juneau Cares program aligns our partners and demonstrates to visitors that the legwork needed to reopen Juneau responsibly is happening. Juneau Cares is supported by a grant from the City & Borough of Juneau.

Juneau businesses can participate in the program by committing to the following actions:

1. Create protocols and plans to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 and other viral illnesses
2. Train staff in the plan
3. Implement the plan and enforce its policies for visitors and staff
4. Make the plan available to guests and the public
5. Maintain/update the plan as needed, and comply with all applicable local, state, and federal regulations.

Sample plans can be found on the Alaska Travel Industry Association website or through their industry sector professional associations. While plans will have to be updated as we learn more about the disease, we’re confident that undergoing these processes now will put Juneau in a better position to meet the protocol demands for the upcoming season. This process creates an actionable baseline.

Travel Juneau shared these concerns in a letter to President Biden. We requested federal action on the matter and invited the president and first lady to visit Juneau to assess the social and economic conditions for themselves.