Cruises to Alaska are very popular not just with American, but tourists from around the world
The trade tariff war launched by the United States President Donald Trump with a whole host of countries, including neighbours Mexico and Canada, has spilled over into tourism.
Many Canadians have announced boycotting travel to the US in face of the tense ties between the leaders of the two countries, and especially Trump’s threat to annex Canada. However, now the impact on tourism is likely to spread, with international travellers to Canada and the United States also likely to get caught in the cross-fire of this unprecedented war.
Taking the tensions deeper into tourism, the Republican Senator of Alaska Dan Sullivan has threatened to push through a law that would in effect ban the current mandatory stop in British Columbia, a province of Canada, for all American cruise ships headed to Alaska.
In a radio interview recently, Sullivan said he could apply for an exemption from the law that requires cruise ships heading to Alaska from the 48 US states to stop in British Columbia. Sullivan told the radio show that if the United States Congress were to pass an exemption law or Trump were to issue an executive order to that effect, skipping Canadian ports would result in the loss of “billions” for the province.
“It is a bit of a dangerous game. You know, Canada, you don’t want to mess with Alaska,” Sullivan said on the show. “If you do, we are going to work hard on having our cruise ships bypass your ports, and that will help our economy tremendously, it will help our tourism industry tremendously, and it will really hurt their tourism,” the Senator threatened.
Sullivan said that there was a precedent for such an exemption to the rule as during the Covid-19 pandemic when international travel was restricted, Alaskan cruises bypassed Canadian ports. At the time, the US Senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski had argued that making the change permanent would be a boost to Alaska tourism business.
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