Alaskan Port Takes Steps to Discourage Vendor Peddling

Tired of overly aggressive tour vendors? So is the town of Sitka, Alaska.

Last week, the popular cruise ship destination implemented tough new rules to keep vendors from hassling cruisers as they pour off ships during the summer.

The rules force vendors of everything from fishing trips to floatplane rides to remain within small assigned spaces in the staging areas that visitors pass after they arrive by tender from ships.

The spaces, marked with yellow lines, are less than five feet wide.

Sitka officials tell the Associated Press they've been fielding growing complaints from cruisers and cruise lines about increasingly ugly tactics used by vendors selling tours. Cruisers also complained about having to walk a gauntlet of competing shore-side businesses within moments of leaving their ships, and officials believed it was creating a bad first impression of the town.

"The problem has escalated to the point we had to do something right now," Sitka's Don Kluting tells the Associated Press. "It didn't develop overnight. It's been going on over the years."