Alaska-Is the Cruise Industry Coming To A Slow End

2009 will prove to be the worst year for sales and revenues for the once incredibly popular Alaska cruise and tour business. While this is shocking, the reason is obvious. The great citizens of Alaska voted a per passenger head tax into existence two years ago with give intent to improve the ports, roadways, and infrastructure for tourism, however, that has not come to fruition. What has happened is that the cruise lines have incurred a huge tax burden which has cost them on the operating side and also have passed on a significant cost to the traveler. A 7-day Alaska cruise has taxes and government fees nearly twice that of any other destination. After a full year of this exorbitant taxing, business has slowed to a crawl... Cruise lines have had to drop prices to an all time low making an Alaska cruise less expensive than virtually ANY Summer Caribbean cruise. The demand is equally soft on the ever popular cruise tour (land and sea) portion of the cruise business too. The taxes have had such an impact on sales and revenues that all cruise lines with the exception of NCL have pulled a ship out of the market for 2010. It is expected that in 2011, capacity will be again reduced due to this pending tax crisis. I don't blame the cruise lines or the consumer for holding back. When shopping for cruises today, everyone is looking at the bottom line. When taxes are so disproportionate to other destinations, the decision for the guest to decide on other places to cruise or travel becomes easier. Oh, don't forget that reduced capacity creates business downturn for the Alaska ports-of-call, local business, tour excursion operators, and major ports like Seattle and Vancouver... Shame on Alaska for its greed and non-use of the taken tourist tax funds...