Norway around it

If there was any doubt that Cruise Lines International Association Alaska’s lawsuit against the City and Borough of Juneau is making waves internationally, a visiting delegation of Norwegians put it to rest Monday morning.

A delegation of about a dozen Norwegians — ranging from government representatives to business leaders — met with several Juneau city officials over breakfast Monday to learn how they have responded to the growth of the cruise industry during the past few decades.

“I’ve looked on the internet to see the debates in this area; we pretty much have the same debates back home,” said Noralv Distad, mayor of Norway’s Aurland Municipality, during a question-and-answer-styled discussion after breakfast.

[Cruise ship group: Whale statue are misuse of fees]

The debate to which Distad was referring was the constant back-and-forth between environmentalists and the cruise industry, he said. But that’s not all he found in his internet search of Juneau. He also read about CLIA Alaska’s ongoing lawsuit, in which the cruise organization alleges that Juneau misused about $10 million worth marine passenger fees to build a seawalk.

“We have more or less the same challenge in Norway,” Distad said. “How have you handled that?”

[Juneau seeks dismissal of head tax lawsuit]

Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch, a defendant in the lawsuit, responded with a joke saying he had removed longtime friend and cruise-industry representative Kirby Day, who was present at Monday’s meeting, from his Thanksgiving invite list.

“The really hard decision was that my daughter is a part of the cruise industry, too, so I don’t know where she’s going to go for Thanksgiving this year,” Koelsch added with a laugh.

City Manager Rorie Watt — who’d only just advised the visiting Norwegians to take cruise-industry instruction “with a grain of salt” — took a less light-hearted approach when answering Distad’s question.

“I’m not happy to spend time working on defending the lawsuit,” Watt said. “I think I have better things I could do with my time, but it’s our role to protect the stability of the community’s relationship with the industry.”

[Lawsuit looms heavy over Chamber luncheon]

Notwithstanding the lawsuit, Juneau city officials and business leaders both agreed that the relationship between the cruise industry has improved over the years.

Community Development Director Rob Steedle said that when he first came to Juneau 25 years ago the dialogue between the industry and the public was “rancorous.” He recalled a time he witnessed one of his friends arguing with a shopkeeper in the street because tensions were high.

During the 1990s, Juneau saw three consecutive years during which the number of cruise passengers visiting town grew by 14 percent, according to Day who presented this statistic during the meeting.

Though cruise tourism isn’t new to Norway — several of the Norwegian delegates pointed out that it has been happening there from more than 100 years — it is rapidly growing in popularity.

“There were difficult growing pains in Juneau years and years ago, but we’ve managed to whittle those down to just a few things that are still difficult to deal with,” Day said.

[Audit: No misuse of Juneau’s head taxes]

In order to help the Norwegians avoid the difficult growing pains caused by a sharp influx of tourists, Watt recommended that the city leaders establish set tourism plans and adhere to them, lest “tourism divide your communities.”

“Don’t be afraid to advocate for your communities,” he said, “The cruise ship industry will not determine what your communities values are, and they won’t work to protect those values. That’s not their job, and they won’t do it for you.”

The Norwegian delegation heads to Skagway via ferry today, and will spend the remainder of its time in Southeast Alaska there are in Glacier Bay. The Norwegians fly home on Saturday.

• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.