Vancouver’s loss

Not so good news for the Vancouver port. Below is a news story from local radio station CKNW. Here is another article from Victoria’s Times Colonist.

Although posting higher then expected profits for the year, 10% for the fiscal year, year over year, Carnival and rival, Royal Caribbean, are cutting capacity to Alaska in 2009, citing a challenging market – including the Alaska head tax and plunging bookings.

Here’s the article from CKNW,

Carnival Cruise Lines is shipping out from Vancouver and heading south. The company is moving its Alaska cruise operation from Vancouver to Seattle next year. Departures from Vancouver to Alaska will drop from ten to one per year.

John Hansen with the Northwest Cruise Ship Association says while it’s disappointing news for Vancouver, another Canadian port could get a boost, “Even the ships that are home-ported in Seattle, they still have to call at a Canadian port in the course of an Alaska cruise. So what that means is that Victoria is going to get some visitors. So in the course of the season, that ship will be stopping in Victoria every week. So that’s the bit of good news out of that.”

Vancouver Port officials say the move by Carnival means the city will lose 18 million dollars in business per year.