All of the major cruise shipping companies that visit seasonally Port Juneau (Alaska) signed an agreement with the city (Alaska's first of its kind), committing to 9 actions.
The parties announced the new agreement on August 29th.
Juneau Tourism Manager Alexandra Pierce said that was "kind of the grab bag of issues" that had come out of the task force that they wanted "to get down on paper early, or first."
She was referring to the Visitor Industry Task Force of the city, which recommended a lot of the commitments in the agreement back in March 2020, just as the COVID crisis began.
The cruise industry’s commitments include giving advance notice to the port city of ship schedules and capacity numbers as well as keeping large outdoor screens turned off while in port. They agree to maximize support for local businesses as well as support the use of up to US$10 million in cruise passenger taxes to expand Centennial Hall.
The collaborative agreement is a huge shift from the adversarial relationship that had come to a head in 2016 when CLIA Alaska sued the port city over its collection/use of cruise passenger taxes. The judge’s 2018 ruling led Juneau and the industry to work together to decide how to spend the passenger taxes.