Passage of Alaska Tourism Restoration Act doubtless means enhance for Seattle’s financial system

For the 2021 season, the law waives the requirement in US law that a ship flying a foreign flag cannot carry passengers directly between American ports.

SEATTLE – President Biden signed the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, a law that reboots part of the 2021 Alaska cruise season from Seattle.

The act waives the requirement in U.S. law that a foreign-owned and flagged ship, like most cruise lines, cannot carry passengers directly between American ports for the 2021 season.

The way to get around this law so far has been to stop in Canada. But with Canada banning all cruise lines from its ports through February 2022, the state of Alaska needed a workaround.

“You will now have the opportunity to help our economy hit hard by COVID,” said Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski after leaving the White House signing.

“Of course the sector benefits both Washington and Alaska,” added Washington Senator Maria Cantwell. She chairs the Committee on Trade, Science and Transport.

In 2019, the Port of Seattle had more than 1.2 million cruise passengers, an industry that the port estimates is worth nearly $ 1 billion to the Seattle economy.

Twenty years ago, Seattle’s share of the cruise market compared to Vancouver, BC was only $ 120,000.

And people spend. The port cites a 2017 study that shows the average cruise visitor spends more than $ 1,500 on hotel stays, restaurants, souvenirs, entertainment, taxis, and other transportation before and after the cruise.

The pandemic completely wiped out the 2020 cruise season.

How much of the 2021 season will be saved compared to the record season 2019 with 213 trips? The Port of Seattle says up to seven cruise lines are planning 80 trips, with six to seven ships operating at 50 to 75% capacity.

As of Friday, six cruise lines have signed up, including Holland America, Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Celebrity. You don’t know the final passenger numbers as the entire industry is waiting for further guidance from the CDC. But according to the guidelines from the beginning of April, almost everyone on the ship must be fully vaccinated.

Will the pandemic be over by the 2022 season? If it doesn’t, and Canada keeps its borders closed and tightly controls travel, Senator Cantwell says the waiver process will have to start over.

“It’s going to hold out this season and next year they have a decision to make and depending on what Canada is doing, depending on where we are with the pandemic, they would have to come back and” look at it again “depending on the many problems said Cantwell.