edmartin
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2003
Now that congress has passed a temporary waiver of the PVSA so that Alaska cruise tourism can start again, I'm curious why this law is still necessary at all in today's world?
I've read several articles on why it came to be in the first place... so this isn't anything against Grover Cleveland! But we're in a different world on 2021 than we were in 1886.
The quick version of the PVSA says that ships flagged/registered in a foreign country can not transport passengers between 2 US ports without stopping along the way in a foreign port. So, for example, you normally could not sail from Seattle to Juneau without stopping in some foreign port (Canada) mid-cruise. As most cruise ships are flagged in a foreign country (e.g. DCL ships are registered in the Bahamas), this means pretty much all cruise lines are subject to this law.
Without getting into some of the exceptions to this law, I'd like to try to understand why this law still needs to exist today? Instead of the act of congress to do the exception this year to help out Alaska tourism, it seems to me the time has come to just do away with this law.
Again, this isn't 1886. I can kind of understand why President Cleveland decided to protect things this way 135 years ago. But in 2021, it's not like a free-for-all where a random foreign cruise ship can set up shop in a US port and operate however they want. This is a regulated industry in 2021 no matter what flag you fly.
The cruise industry has a lot of issues to deal with right now. But it seems to me that now might be the time to push for elimination of the PVSA.
I've read several articles on why it came to be in the first place... so this isn't anything against Grover Cleveland! But we're in a different world on 2021 than we were in 1886.
The quick version of the PVSA says that ships flagged/registered in a foreign country can not transport passengers between 2 US ports without stopping along the way in a foreign port. So, for example, you normally could not sail from Seattle to Juneau without stopping in some foreign port (Canada) mid-cruise. As most cruise ships are flagged in a foreign country (e.g. DCL ships are registered in the Bahamas), this means pretty much all cruise lines are subject to this law.
Without getting into some of the exceptions to this law, I'd like to try to understand why this law still needs to exist today? Instead of the act of congress to do the exception this year to help out Alaska tourism, it seems to me the time has come to just do away with this law.
Again, this isn't 1886. I can kind of understand why President Cleveland decided to protect things this way 135 years ago. But in 2021, it's not like a free-for-all where a random foreign cruise ship can set up shop in a US port and operate however they want. This is a regulated industry in 2021 no matter what flag you fly.
The cruise industry has a lot of issues to deal with right now. But it seems to me that now might be the time to push for elimination of the PVSA.