Cruises may soon resume between Alaska and Washington, boosting tourism in both states but cutting out British Columbia.
Alaska cruises typically stop in B.C. because U.S. law prohibits foreign-flagged vessels – most of the industry – from transporting passengers directly between two American ports. In 2019, Victoria and Vancouver had a combined total of 553 ship visits.
After Ottawa extended its ban on cruises until Feb. 2022 – saying these sailing petri dishes potentially tax the healthcare system – Alaska’s U.S. senators announced plans for an exemption that would allow cruises to skip Canada.
Given a year of COVID-19, a cruise may not be on everyone’s to-do list. Yet the industry is a driver of Cascadia’s previously booming tourism sector, even if the environmental impacts are severe and the economic benefits are probably overstated.
The ships are floating cities, burning dirty fuel and bringing a city’s worth of sewage. Canada should use the current hiatus as an opportunity to ban dumping raw waste and cut emissions, notes a recent report. (Luckily Victoria's Mr. Floatie isn't fully retired yet.)
The biggest economic benefit goes to home ports, which get the flights, hotel stays, restaurant visits and shopping before and after sailings. Vancouver had the Alaska cruise market to itself until 1999, when Seattle's terminal opened and faster ships made it attractive, especially for American passengers. In 20 years, Seattle's business grew to 1.2 million annual passengers, generating $900 million and 5,500 jobs in 2019, according to the Port of Seattle. Despite the competition, Vancouver still had 800,000 passengers in the last year before the pandemic.
The growth wasn't a straight line. For example, in 2006 Cascadia Report wrote about Seattle losing a cruise line to Vancouver. That turned out to be a blip.
Surely cruises will be back eventually. Now is a chance for some towns to take Sitka's example and reorient toward independent travel and for the region to rethink blind investment given the pros and cons of the industry.