Haines’ assembly has passed its first cruise passenger fee. A local official says the move will help the Southeast Alaska town, which calls itself “The Adventure Capital of Alaska,” be ready for expenditures related to tourism.
The Haines Borough Assembly unanimously approved a new tariff on cruise ship passengers. The revenue passenger fee will start next year.
Reba Hylton is Haines’ tourism director. She said the town, which will host roughly 100,000 cruise ship passengers this year, has never had a passenger fee.
“No, we didn’t have a fee at all,” she said. “So that was kind of like a big, big red flag to me when knowing that the existing cruise ship dock needed some maintenance. And you know, you want to know how you’re going to fix things, or how you’re going to make things better. And when there’s no pot of money specifically targeted to do that, for me, bringing forward a port fee was a must.”
The fee will start out at $9 per passenger in 2025 and increase to $12 in 2027 and then $13 in 2029. The Assembly has not defined exactly what the funds will be used for, but legally, the money must go towards improvements that benefit passengers, such as a floating dock or other infrastructure need.
Hylton said the discussion regarding the tariff first started about six months ago.
“It’s been to several different committees: the Tourism Advisory Board, and Ports and Harbor, Finance and Commerce,” she said. “So it’s had a lot of vetting and discussion, and now it’s in place. So it was a lot of work.”
