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NTA Opposes Alaska’s Proposed Cruise Tax

July 20, 2006

NTA Opposes Alaska’s Proposed Cruise Tax
July 20, 2006 – Citing the impact to tourism to the Pacific Northwest, the National Tour Association is voicing its opposition to the Alaska cruise tax, known as Ballot Measure 2. Among other provisions, the proposal would create a $50 per-passenger tax on cruise ship passengers.

 

Research conducted by local citizens’ groups found that Alaska could lose 10 percent of the state’s tourism visitors, costing the state millions of dollars and jeopardizing thousands of jobs.

 

"This proposal sends a negative message to the industry and potential passengers," said NTA President Hank Phillips, CTP. "A tourism-dependent state such as Alaska should be encouraging tourism, not enacting taxes to make tourism more costly and less attractive for budget-conscious travelers."

 

Today, NTA is reaffirming its opposition to the tourist-targeted tax. The association first voiced disagreement to a similar proposal by former Governor Knowles in 2002. Letters have been sent to the Alaska Tourism Industry Association and the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce to formally reaffirm NTA’s opposition.

 

"NTA has a long-standing tradition of opposing local taxes on tourists to pay for local general revenue responsibilities," said NTA Legislative Counsel Jim Santini. "This reminds me of the industry efforts in the 1990s when NTA and ASTA co-chaired a campaign led by TIA to oppose exorbitant increases in hotel room taxes. Proposals such as this represent a terrible precedent for the other states to arbitrarily tax travelers."

 

The National Tour Association was established in 1951 as a unified voice to fight legislation in the newly formed packaged travel industry. Today, NTA’s government relations activities include monitoring security issues, as well as state and federal legislation and regulatory issues affecting the travel and tourism industry. NTA maintains full-time representation in Washington, D.C., to serve as the association’s voice on Capitol Hill. Additionally, NTA empowers its members to be advocates for the association on the local level, as well as to provide support for NTA’s positions on national priority issues through its Grassroots Action Network. For more information on NTA’s government relations activities, please visit http://preseason.ntaonline.com/www.NTA.travel or call 800.682.8886.

 

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