How Many Miles

joe b. wrote:
I will stand by what I said. The cruise ships are fueled and provisioned at their home port in the lower 48, the buses are owned by the cruise companies, driven by out of state seasonal drivers, for the most part. They stay at company owned hotels when on land, eat at company owned restaurants, and the money paid for the trip by the tourists stayed with the company outside.

Just curious, what your background is to be such an expert on Alaska? I have lived in rural Alaska for over 25 years, have made 13 RV round trips to/from Alaska and the lower 48, have made another half dozen or more round trips by car or truck, made 8 or 10 flying trips, with me as the pilot, following the Alaska Highway or the Cassiar between the lower 48 and Alaska, I have personally run river boats from the Fairbanks area to the mouth on the Yukon River and back, plus I have accumulated over 3,000 hours of bush flying, as a pilot . Did my best to wear out four different airplanes and a half dozen RVs, the years we lived there.
Most of the Alaska tourist industry is only operating during the short summers. When many of the private businesses close for the winter, the owners head outside to live till the following summer.

The Alaska economy has always been based upon extractive industry. Such as mining, timber, fishing, petroleum, etc. Tourism is much the same.

Full time, tell us about your Alaska experiences, if you would please.

I notice that while you have a long connection to Alaska you have no experience with the tourism/hospitality industry there.

The facts I posted are easily found on the Web and I noted in my post where they came from.... CLIA

Cruise ships do re-bunker and provision in Alaska. Those visitors dont just stay in company hotels, but many do, Overflow often fills other non cruise line owned hotels. And as for eating? They eat all over. Meals on land are rarely included.

As for my experience in Alaska, it started with my driving the Highway in Nov of 1972 to my new duty station, Elemndorf AFB. Since then I have lived here, traveled here and worked here on and off over the years. I just made my second trip here in the lat 12 months and am now working here in.. yes.. a sort of Workcamper job for the season. Something I decided I wanted to do last summer when I was here. I have lived in Anchorage, Hoonah, The north slope...Deadhorse ( a long long time ago) and now Fairbanks. Two times I have worked in the tourist industry here as I am doing now.

But this is off topic strictly speaking and we should return to the real subject about why the OP couldn't find the mileage to the Alaska Border even though he/she had access to the internet.