| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 01/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 6 |
| Copyright: Other |
Cruiselines await $50 Alaskan tax outcome
Report by TANYAJEFFERIES
CRUISELINES could be forced to hike the price of holidays to Alaska by $50 a head to pay for a new environmental tax proposed by the state government.The Alaska Senate has already voted through a bill to charge cruise companies entering its waters $50 per passenger but it still has to pass through the US state’s legislature before it becomes law.
The bill has been prompted by local concern in Alaska about the impact of cruise ships on the environment.
If it goes ahead, the $50 charge would replace a $5 per head tax on cruise visitors which was introduced by Alaska’s state capital Juneau six months ago following a residents’ referendum.
Under the proposed new state law, the $50 charge would be divided between the local governments of each port a passenger visits.
Passenger Shipping Association director Bill Gibbons said that if Alaska went ahead with the tax, it would be a matter for individual cruiselines whether they passed on the whole $50 to their passengers or decided to absorb it themselves.
“Anything that makes cruising more expensive compared to other holidays is certainly not a good thing for the industry,” he said.
“Alaska is an environmentally sensitive area, so cruiselines will need to study this issue closely. But the tax has several stages to go through before it becomes reality – it might not happen.”
The manager of Atlantis Cruising in London, Jeremy Scott, believes cruiselines will pass the new tax on to passengers if it is imposed on them.
“There’s no way operators will swallow it,” he said.
However, Scott said a $50 tax was low compared to the charges levied by ports in Alaska. He said port charges for a seven-night cruise in Alaska would total around $160 per person.
Edwina Lonsdale, managing director of Mundy Cruising in London, said: “To maintain Alaska’s infrastructure and everything that is special about it, the government needs to generate sufficient income from cruise passengers.”
A Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman said the company was concerned about the tax and was monitoring the situation closely.
Troubled waters: the state senate has already passed the ruling that will force cruiselines to pay a $50 tax for each passenger