Wrangell Sentinel -

Independent travelers and passengers aboard small cruise ships are vital to Wrangell's tourism season, and they're exactly what the community is focusing on - regardless of Canada's decision to keep its waters closed to the larger cruise ships that come to Alaska.

"We're moving forward with marketing to independent travelers ... it's huge for us," said Carol Rushmore, the borough's economic development director and head of the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau.

"The fact that we don't rely as heavily on the big ships is to our advantage," she said last Friday.

In 2019, the last pre-pandem...