Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he wants to use federal pandemic relief dollars for a national advertising campaign to support Alaska's tourism industry, though he provided no details or budget for the marketing campaign in the April 9 announcement.
The governor's office also said tourism businesses will soon receive relief grants from the state, with details to come this week.
Legislative approval is required to appropriate state funds.
Dunleavy said he has put Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer in charge of gathering information about community needs, and that Meyer and other state officials will travel through Southeast, Denali, the Kenai Peninsula and Matanuska-Susitna Borough to gather information and report to the Legislature.
The governor also reiterated in his April 9 news conference at an airport hangar in Juneau that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should allow a cruise season this summer.
"This is an economic death grapple right now with individuals,"Dunleavy said, in calling for the agency to lift its no-sail order.
The CDC order has been in effect since last year due to the pandemic. Though the agency last month issued more guidelines for what would be required if cruise lines resume operations, it has not lifted its order that applies to cruises nationwide.
The state of Florida last week filed suit, seeking a court order to lift the ban.
Regardless of any CDC action, however, a 135-year-old federal law requires foreign-flagged cruise ships that enter Alaska to stop in Canada, which covers all of the larger ships that serve the Alaska tourism trade. Canada has closed its waters to the large ships to avoid further spread of the Coronavirus and has not indicated any change in its closure.
Dunleavy has signed a resolution asking Congress and President Joe Biden to exempt Alaska from the law so that cruise ships could sail past Canada on their way to and from the state.
"The simple fact is that this is a live-or-die moment for the economy of a huge portion of our state,"Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl, who sponsored the legislative resolution.
Faced with the Canadian closure and lacking CDC authorization to resume sailings, the largest Alaska-bound cruise lines have already canceled their voyages through early July.
It could take as long as 90 days to move the ships into place, bring back crews and provision the cruise liners for Alaska sailings, according to industry officials.
The longer the companies have to wait for permission to start Alaska operations, the greater the chance they will cancel the entire season and move the ships elsewhere, Ralph Samuels, an executive with Holland America Line and Princess Cruises, said at the governor's press event.
Before the pandemic shut down last year's cruise season, Alaska was expecting 1.3 million visitors to arrive in communities from Southeast to Southcentral, with many extending their travels into the Interior.
"Our place is open for business,"Dunleavy said at the Juneau press event. "It's open for business, because we've got the worst of this behind us,"he said of the pandemic and infection rates in Alaska. "We know what we're doing. We're not just saying this and want you to believe: Look at the data."
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