Cruise industry continues to cut back on West coast

The Alaska cruise industry continues to scale back their sailings out of Vancouver, as yet another major cruise line reduces its schedule for 2010.

Norwegian Cruise Line is shifting its Alaska-bound cruise ship, the Norwegian Sun away from its Vancouver base and over to Europe for next year, a move that will see Vancouver lose some 38 million dollars in revenues from the lost sailings.

The move reduces the Norwegian Cruise Line footprint in Vancouver to half of what they have this year and is indicative of the cutbacks from the major cruise lines in the wake of a new form of taxation in Alaska on cruise ship passengers.

The fifty dollar a passenger fee has become a bone of contention between the State and its cruise line operators, Vancouver is getting caught in the cross fire, with Carnival Cruise Lines having previously announced its new plans for 2010 which will see the company relocate to Seattle next year, taking 18 million dollars out of the Vancouver economy.

Prince Rupert's 2009 cruise ship has also seen reductions, with one major ships port of call at Northland Terminal cancelled this season, leaving the city to try and entice other cruise lines to take up some of the slack in 2010, that may be a job that won't find a lot of success in the short term, considering the mood of the cruise lines regarding Alaska these days!