WELCOME
Letter from the Chairman
BY PAUL THOMAS | CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY
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OUR LEADERS IN CONGRESS PUSHED HARD AND FOUND A WAY TO TAKE ONE MORE HURDLE OUT OF THE WAY , WITH THE ALASKA TOURISM RESTORATION ACT WHICH WILL ALLOW FOREIGN-FLAGGED CRUISE SHIPS TO BYPASS CANADA ON THEIR WAY TO US IN
ALASKA .
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Since the last Magazine came out , we have held an in-person Board Meeting and the 20 th Selman Memorial Golf Tournament with a 19 th hole celebration at Eddie ’ s Sports Bar . It was fantastic to be attending these great events and getting to see our staff , members , and the rest of the Board of Directors in person . In my last letter for the magazine , I was still only able to talk of plans to participate in these inperson events in hopes that they would come together . Today I am pleased that we have a few of these events under our belt and things are really starting to swing back to normal levels with less restrictions , more locals visiting establishments , independent tourists , and even some cruise ships in Southeast Alaska .
When I was writing the letter for the last magazine , I had to take out comments about the return of the cruise ships because the situation was changing so fast . Our leaders in Congress pushed hard and found a way to take one more hurdle out of the way , with the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act which will allow foreign-flagged cruise ships to bypass Canada on their way to us in Alaska . Several Cruise Lines have since announced deployments of ships back to the Alaska in time to make a real difference to our member establishments across the state this year .
However , while Congress , State and Local Government , Communities , and independent groups have been working on ways to present Alaska as a welcoming destination , there have been others working to put out a different very un-welcoming message . In Juneau we had a small group of citizens start three initiative petitions for amendments to Juneau ’ s city char-
ALASKA CHARR MAGAZINE | 2