With Canadian ports closed to cruise ships carrying more than 100 passengers until 2022, members of Alaska’s legislature are urging Congress to make short-term exemptions to the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) in an attempt to salvage the state’s 2021 tourism season.

Under the PVSA, foreign-flagged ships, including cruise ships owned by companies such as Carnival, Disney, and Royal Caribbean, are required to stop in at least one international port as part of an American itinerary. Canada is the obvious choice for a ship bound for Alaska. 

Senate Joint Resolution 9, sponsored by more than a dozen senators on both sides of the aisle, asks for that requirement to be temporarily suspended.  It cites the rise in unemployment and loss of revenue the tourism industry suffered last year as a result of the pandemic as reasons for why the exemptions are needed.

“If the 2021 season looks like the 2020 season for cruise tourism, there will be no jobs and there will be very few businesses left alive to reopen in 2022,” Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, said in a Senate floor session on March 19.

During public testimony earlier this month, concerns were raised regarding the spread of COVID-19 onboard and at ports.  However, Sen. Kiehl said the CDC’s Framework for Conditional Sailing Order, which he described as “thorough and rigorous guidelines,” would help ensure that didn’t happen.

“I have every confidence that cruise lines, if they are able to sail, that meet the CDC’s requirements, will engage in commerce in our communities and in our waters safely,” he said.

He also noted that no cruise lines have made any commitments or final commercial decisions regarding sailing this year and with a 90-day window needed to restaff and prepare ships to sail, the resolution needed to be moved along quickly.

The Senate voted to pass the resolution 16-0 last week, and it will now move through the House.   If it passes the House and the governor signs it, copies of the resolution will be sent to President Biden, Vice President Harris, as well as Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Don Young. The state resolution will not have the ability to impact federal regulations on international cruise ships. It is meant as a message to federal bodies who do have that authority. 

Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan recently introduced a bill to the U.S. Congress, the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act. This act would create the temporary exemption to the PVSA, allowing a foreign-flagged ship to sail in Alaska without a Canadian stop. 

By Amanda Swinehart