ArcticToday
But voyages through the Northwest Passage are still on hold.
ByYereth Rosen
A cruise ship sails in a fjord in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park. (Scott Gende / National Park Service)
Federal legislation has cleared the way for the resumption of cruise travel in Alaska this year though not at the record-breaking level that had been expected prior to the pandemic.
President Biden on Monday signed a bill sponsored by the Alaska Congressional delegation, the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, that gives large passenger vessels a temporary exemption from the requirement that foreign-flagged ships to make stopovers in Canada. The Canadian government has halted voyages by large passenger ships until 2022, erecting an impediment for the large cruise ships that typically sail north to Alaska in the summer. (It also extended a ban pleasure craft from Canadian Arctic waters through 2022.)