The fee for cruise passengers traveling into Glacier Bay National Park, southeast Alaska will increase in 2019.
The permit fee for each cruise ship passenger for the next decade increases from US$5 to US$8.28.
The new rate comes as National Park Service is aiming to award new contracts to cruise companies for access to Glacier Bay National Park. The contracts govern how many cruise vessels can enter the park each year as well as how much each liner will pay.
According to park service concessions specialist, Melanie Berg, the agency asked each of the contract bidders detailed questions about how its operations would affect the ecosystem of the park.
Of the about 550,000 tourists who visited the park in 2017, over 330,000 arrived by cruisers.