Proposed head tax reduction aims to aid tourism recovery

March 19, 2010

Gov. Sean Parnell announced his plans to reduce the state's head tax on cruise-ship passengers Friday. (Rich Jordan/KTUU-DT)

by Jackie Bartz
Friday, March 19, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sean Parnell announced plans to lower the state head tax on cruise-ship passengers by over $10 Friday, but in return he wants major cruise lines to send more ships to Alaska.

Parnell flew to Miami this week for a cruise ship trade show, although he received anything but a warm welcome. Cruise line CEOs attacked the state for its head tax and threatened to avoid Alaskan waters altogether.

"My administration will aggressively seek to bring more tourist dollars to our shores, to grow our economy and fuel our Alaska businesses," Parnell said, announcing plans to lower the head tax from $46 to $34.50.

The governor wants the Legislature to tack the tax reduction onto the tourism marketing bill. His proposal would also drop the Alaska Cruise Association's pending lawsuit aiming to repeal the head tax.

Members of the travel industry say they're thrilled about Parnell's announcement. Supporters of the tax say they're not upset about lowering it, but they blame low tourism numbers on the economic slump, not the tax.

"That they lashed out at the governor, it wasn't the governor's fault," said Chip Thoma of Responsible Cruising in Alaska. "This was the voters that put this in -- the voters did this in 2006, so it had nothing to do with the governor. But unfortunately, he's taking the heat."

The Alaska Cruise Association says the industry pulled three ships from Alaska this season. The group says the decision will cause a decline of about 140,000 tourists in 2010.

"I think where it's going to make a difference is that the cruise ships aren't going to continue to pull ships out of Alaska," said Paul Landis with the Alaska Alliance for Cruise Travel. "We're looking at 140,000 less cruise passengers coming to Alaska, and certainly the head tax is one of the components of that."

Contact Jackie Bartz at jbartz@ktuu.com

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