Carnival Corp. won’t be bringing any of its cruise ships to Alaska this season. That’s following Wednesday’s announcement that its subsidiaries Princess Cruises and Holland America Line had canceled all remaining Alaska voyages for 2020.
Carnival Cruise Line canceled its brand of cruises earlier this week.
The absence of Carnival-owned cruise lines removes the largest industry player from Alaska this year. Tourism Management Best Practices — a Juneau-based trade group — says nearly 80% of sailings for the 2020 season are not going forward.
That’s a loss of 955,574 cruise passengers to the state, according to the group.
Coastal communities will bear the brunt of the economic impact. Rain Coast Data says cruise visitors are 90% of visitors to Southeast Alaska.
The path forward for cruise lines that have not canceled sailings is unclear. A federal “no sail” order currently remains in effect for large cruise ships through July 24.
Critical ports in the region are also closed to large cruise ships. Canada’s ports are closed to large cruise ships until at least July. And Seattle’s cruise port remains shuttered until Washington state’s emergency declaration is lifted.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Alaska had been projected to shatter all previous records by receiving 1.44 million cruise passengers.
