House approves funds for tourism marketing

JUNEAU -- The state House approved $6 million in emergency marketing money Feb. 4 to help the tourism industry counter the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks on the United States.

Tourism industry officials say bookings are down 30 to 40 percent and they need to advertise aggressively to avert a disaster this year.

House Finance Co-Chairman Eldon Mulder, R-Anchorage, said the state spending is a good investment. A drop of only 10 percent in tourism would mean $100 million less in spending in Alaska and the loss of hundreds of jobs, he said.

"This is an emergency situation," Mulder said. "The tourism industry didn't create the terror that was wrought on our country Sept. 11. However, they are bearing the brunt of it."

Some members of the House, though, refused to support the spending because the Legislature hasn't adopted a long-range plan to identify a source of funding for that and other state spending.

The state is expected to have to pull about $1 billion from a reserve account in the next fiscal year to patch a hole in its budget.

Investments, low prices lead to NANA loss

ANCHORAGE -- NANA Regional Corp. lost $8.6 million last year, its first loss since 1993, said Marie Greene, the Northwest Alaska Native regional corporation's new president.

The company said it was hurt by losses on Wall Street, low zinc prices and the write-off of two losing investments. Green said the company is now focusing on reducing costs and stabilizing the company.

"We need to tighten our belts," she said.

NANA decided to write off its investment in WAVE Wholesale Co., a rural grocery service begun by Calista Corp. that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year, Greene said. Calista is the Native regional corporation for the Bethel area. NANA lost $3.1 million in WAVE, she estimated.

The company also wrote off Alaska Pride Bakery, an Anchorage bread venture that found it couldn't compete against Wonder Bread and the other brands available, she said.

NANA's problems were compounded because it did not see the returns it expected from Red Dog Mine, the world's largest zinc mine, Greene said. NANA owns the mine, which is operated by TeckCominco.

"Zinc prices were just so low, and royalties weren't what we expected," Greene said.

Biologists predicting strong pink salmon run

PETERSBURG -- Southeast Alaska fishermen could harvest as many as 30 to 50 million pink salmon this summer, according to predictions by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The season is not expected to break records, said biologist Tim Zadina, but the return should be healthy.

"The total return forecast is between 57 and 87 million," Zadina said. "It's not going be as high as the '99 return, but everything is leaning toward a pretty good return off of the 2000 escapement."

Zadina said the harvest could wind up on the top 10 list.

"Our escapement goal range is 24 to 37 million," he said. "That gives us a harvest potential of between 30 and 52 million."

More than 50 percent of the return in 2002 is expected in southern Southeast. The northern portion of the Panhandle along the inside waters should get nearly 40 percent of the return and about 10 percent is expected to show up in the northern outside waters off Baranof Island.

Mild conditions during winter 2000-2001 probably helped with the survival of this year's return, which was spawned in the fall 2000.

Fewer nonresidents in Alaska's work force

JUNEAU -- The percentage of nonresident workers in Alaska reached its lowest point in a decade in 2000, according to the state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

That year, department figures show, 17.9 percent of the workers in Alaska lived elsewhere.

That figure was down slightly from 18.1 percent in 1999. It's a big decline from 1992, when nearly 24 percent of the Alaska workers weren't residents.

Resident workers in 2000 took home nearly 90 percent of the cash, however. Outside workers collected 10.3 percent of $8.76 billion paid in Alaska wages and salaries that year.

A big part of the decline came because of lower employment in the seafood processing industry, whose work force is about 70 percent nonresidents. That industry lost about 1,400 workers in 2000 compared with the year before.

But the oil industry more than made up the difference. Employment in that industry rose by nearly 2,000 jobs in 2000 to 13,100. Nearly a thousand of the new workers weren't Alaskans.

The state figures come from filings for unemployment insurance, so they don't include federal workers or those who are self-employed.

NATION

Some factory orders increase in December

WASHINGTON -- Orders to U.S. factories rose by 1.2 percent in December, with gains posted for semiconductors, household appliances and machinery.

The advance in factory orders reported by the Commerce Department Feb. 5 came after orders fell by 4.3 percent in November and suggests that the nation's battered manufacturing sector may see better days ahead.

Manufacturers have borne the brunt of the recession that began in March. To cope, they have sharply cut production, trimmed hours and laid off workers. Last year, factories shed 1.3 million jobs, or about 7 percent of their work force.

But the report, taken with other recent data, indicates the worst of the recession may be over for manufacturers.

Before manufacturing can fully recover, however, businesses will have to crank up investment again and foreign companies and consumers must increase their spending on American-made goods, which would boost U.S. exports.

WORLD

P&O Princess spurns Carnival's latest offer

LONDON -- Cruise ship owner P&O Princess PLC has spurned a third takeover bid from Carnival Corp., but that didn't stop Carnival's chief executive from meeting Feb. 4 with Princess' investors, hoping to spark a shareholder mutiny that would help him capture his smaller rival's fleet.

Princess' board turned down Carnival's latest offer on grounds similar to its rejection of Carnival's previous two bids, that it was too small and too likely to run afoul of regulatory concerns. Princess continued to push instead for its own planned merger with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

"We consider that the Royal Caribbean transaction creates more value and is more deliverable than Carnival's latest takeover proposal," Princess chief executive Peter Ratcliffe said.

All three companies operate in Alaska.

Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, launched its original bid for Princess after the London-based business announced its proposed union with No. 2 Royal Caribbean. Princess would own 50.7 percent of the new group, or $3 billion of its total equity value, with Royal Caribbean taking the remaining 49.3 percent.

All three companies are eager to cut costs in the wake of a plunge in business after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

-- Compiled from business wire services.