On April 9, 1940, we featured a piece on the American Express Travel Service's new tour booklet on summer trips to Alaska. Featuring maps, pictures and descriptions, the news item highlighted Circle Tours' 36-day trip from Seattle through the Inside Passage to the capital city of Juneau and then down the Yukon River to Fairbanks. (Read the full article here.)
In the past 70 years, Alaska has flourished. As Juneau has added an array of different specialties outside the cruise industry, Fairbanks has been included among Princess Cruises' 2011 cruises, which features a 14-day cruisetour targeted specifically for fishing aficianados. Of course, the biggest development is Alaska's cruise industry. Alongside Princess Cruises, InnerSea Discoveries debuted four Alaska cruises for its 2011 season, and following Cruise West's fall, small-ship line Alaskan Dream Cruises will launch in May 2011 with eight-day roundtrip voyages from Sitka on Saturdays.
Other additions include Alaska Airlines' three weekly flights between San Jose, Calif. and Los Cabos, Mexico, its two seasonal routes to Hawaii and Mexico's Puerto Vallarta, and the airline's code-share agreement with Cathay Pacific Airways. We love Kenai Fjords' resorts, among them Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge and Pedersen Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary.
As we celebrate our 80th anniversary, we're taking a look at what was happening in the industry in the past and asking agents to share their thoughts on what has changed in the industry in the present. Please share your thoughts by posting a comment below, writing us at our Facebook page, sending a tweet to our Twitter page or by engaging in a discussion in real time at AgentNation (the only social community online for all kinds of travel agents, which certainly wasn't around 80 years ago). We want to hear from you.
And while you're here, learn more about how we're celebrating eight decades of covering the travel industry for travel professionals.