The seasonal cruise industry injected $1.35 billion into the Alaska economy in 2007, according to a new economic impact study conducted by McDowell Group.
Cruise passenger spending directly or indirectly accounted for half of the economic activity, followed by cruise line purchases and wages. The industry generated an estimated $100 million for state and local governments, with half going to the state and half to local governments.
Southeast Alaska receives about half (47 percent) of the total cruise passenger and cruise expenditures, followed by Southcentral Alaska with 26 percent and Interior/Other Alaska at 16 percent. Approximately 11 percent of expenditures have a statewide impact and cannot be attributed to any one region of the state.
The industry directly or indirectly supports an annual average of 14,500 full-time jobs in Alaska, including 7,000 in Southeast Alaska, 3,000 in Southcentral Alaska, 2,500 in Interior Alaska and 2,000...
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By Cruise Week
No official word yet, but well-placed sources tell Cruise Week that the government has reached a resolution in determining how they will interpret the foreign-flag cruise ship rule. "They've decided to limit enforcement of the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) to markets where there are large U.S.-flagged ships currently operating - and there's only one: Hawaii," one insider said. "So Alaska, Key West, Maine, etc. don't have to worry about changes."
All this follows a Senate Appropriations sub-committee hearing in which Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) chastised Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for taking so long to reach a decision. "There is no economy left in Southeast Alaska except tourism, and they all come in on these cruise ships," said Stevens, explaining...
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The drinking water that comes from your faucet in Anchorage contains too much copper for cruise ships to discharge it back into Alaska waters. Ditto for tap water in Fairbanks. And in Wasilla.
A new Large Commercial Passenger Vessel Wastewater Discharge General Permit issued by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation sets standards for some trace metals so high that no community in Alaska can meet them. Neither can the cruise ships, even those from companies that have spent more than $200 million developing the most advanced wastewater treatment systems in Alaska.
And that means less business for Alaska.
The permit requirement is part of the cruise ship initiative that voters approved in 2006. That initiative imposed a number of environmental...
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