CND has often written about how the State of Alaska (with the voters' approval) is making it less and less profitable for cruise lines to operate there. The longer this goes on (and increases), the fewer the number of cruise ships that will be there. The state's economy has benefited much from cruise tourism, and as the industry withdraws it will take a larger and large toll on the state's economy.
There have already started to be direct effects over the last couple of years as the cruise lines stopped expanding for the first time in years. Next year their capacity going to Alaska will start to shrink.
Alaska is now starting to have secondary effects with other businesses recognizing the state's economy will shrink as the cruise ships go away, and because of the shrinking economy, those business no longer want to expand in the state, causing further shrinking of the economy. In a letter to the editor of the Juneau Empire, Gary Droubay, the CEO of Goldbelt, which develops real estate in Alaska, writes about what a bad move it was for the voters to pass the 2006 citizens' initiative, and immediately thereafter his investors canceled a $200 million project near Juneau because they could see the effect the measure would have on the cruise industry and then later, the state's economy.
The letter is worth reading. It's nothing we haven't said, but this time it's coming from someone in Alaska who is watching the economy begin to collapse around him.
