This summer, the cruise industry is forced by the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic to cancel all cruises to Alaska.  Cruises to Alaska leave from the ports on the West Coast, including San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC.  So those ports will miss out on the cruise ship passengers’ money, but they have other sources of tourists.  The ports in Alaska, on the other hand, don’t have quite so many sources of tourist dollars.

In the past, those Alaska cities have expressed some degree of dislike of those cruise-ship passengers, who disembark in the mornings, swarm all over their towns, get back on those big ships in the evening, and sail away.  A few years ago, all those towns got together and proposed to levy some rather large taxes on each cruise-ship passenger, to cover the towns’ costs for rubbish removal and other wear-and-tear.  At least one place was concerned about the town’s “cruise-ship passenger carrying capacity”.  Obviously, that swarm of paying customers is a mixed blessing for the Alaska towns that see multiple cruise ships every summer.

So, how will they feel this year, when they receive zero cruise ships, and the many dollars their passengers spend in their cities?  Will they rethink their dislike of all those tourists swarming their towns?  Or will they breathe a sigh of relief when their towns remain quiet all summer?