LISTENING TOUR— Former lawmaker and the Governor’s special assistant for Southeast Bill Thomas and Lt. Governor Kevin Meyer were in Nome last Friday to meet with businesses impacted by the lack of cruise ship tourism in 2020.

Lt. Governor visits Nome, gauging economic loss due to COVID-19

By Diana Haecker
Lt. Governor Kevin Meyer and Bill Thomas, the Governor’s special assistant for Southeast Alaska, traveled to Nome last Friday to hear firsthand from Nome businesses and how the loss of cruise ship visits last year —and possibly this coming season —will impact the economy.
They met with City representatives and Nome Chamber of Commerce members before holding a press conference at City Hall. Their mission was strictly limited to find out how the cruise ship related tourism industry fared during the pandemic. In 2020, all cruises not only bound for Nome but all Alaskan destinations were canceled and the upcoming season may suffer the same fate as well. According to a study, Nome suffered an estimated loss of just over $6,000 in sales tax revenue and an estimated loss of $310 in bed tax connected to cruise ship cancellations. These numbers, however, do not reflect the loss of business during the 2020 and 2021 Iditarod and summer season.
The State of Alaska will receive a total of $1.02 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds to assist in recovery efforts from COVID-19 and will fund certain programs through December 31, 2024.
Last week Governor Dunleavy rolled out a proposal on how to spend the allocated ARP funds. “We don’t have the money yet,” said Meyer, “and we don’t know the guidelines on how to use it until May 10.” After the guidelines are known, the Legislature decides on how to spend the money and it will only have nine days to do so as they are set to adjourn on May 19. Governor Dunleavy proposed a tourism revitalization plan that proposes to use $150 million from the federal ARP “for the expressed goal of providing relief to communities, cultural tourism businesses, as well as tourism, hospitality and ancillary businesses throughout Alaska affected by the loss of a cruise ship and tourism season.” The governor sent Meyer on a listening tour to report their findings back to the legislature if $150 million is enough to appropriate. “That’s the money that Bill [Thomas] and I are trying to justify and determine if that’s the right number. Is too much or not enough? We will get that to the legislature and present the number and say ‘Here is why, here is all the businesses we talked to and here is how they are impacted,’” Meyer said.
Meyer said the bulk of the impact is hitting Southeast Alaska — Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Haines — but the loss of cruise ship business is also felt in Seward, Whittier, Anchorage, Fairbanks. While Southcentral and the Interior can compensate some of the cruise ship loss with individual travelers, it would be a hard thing to achieve for Nome, he remarked, as there is only one flight coming to Nome per day. He heard from Nome businesses hopeful remarks that the lack of flights may entice travelers to stay longer and thus experience more of Nome. One pitch the Governor makes is to attract international tourists to come to Alaska in order to get vaccinated. “The governor has offered to vaccinate people who come here. Hopefully that will be incentive for some,” Meyer said. “Canada is still behind, and I’m told Japan has very low vaccination rate. They may come over and get vaccinated and while they’re here, they may say, ‘Hey, let’s see this great state.’”
 During their tour around southeast and southcentral, he heard that renting RVs and rental-cars this summer will be a challenge and that tourism related businesses have problems hiring workers. “Some can’t get the labor, either they don’t want the job or have current unemployment benefits that are more attractive than getting the job,” Meyer said.
“Then we caught wind that Nome gets cruise ships,” he said. “We heard that they were expecting up to 20 cruise ships in Nome this season and it doesn’t look like they’re going to get any. There might be a few small ones.”
In talks with Nome Chamber of Commerce business members he learned that some businesses were doing ok, such as hunting and guiding outfits, and some were not, such as hotels. The consensus was the ask for a simple application process once the state is ready to roll out the grant program. Meyer said the governor proposed that the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development become the lead agency to take applications and disperse the funds. One stipulation is that the applicants will need to have an Alaska business license. Gig workers or individual artists without a business license who missed out on last year’s cruise ship season won’t be able to apply for the grant.
The governor proposed an allocation of $325 million for other economic recovery and business relief. But the $150 million proposed are strictly geared toward cruise ship tourism.
Meyer said that there were already different ideas in the Legislature on how to disperse the ARP funds. He said the House proposed $30 million instead of $150 million for cruise ship relief. The Senate however has kept it at $150. “We were encouraged by that and well see where that ultimately ends up,” he said. “We are going to be in Juneau on Monday and hope to share some of the findings with the legislature and convince them that the $150 million is the right amount.”

 

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

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