Alaska’s per-capita alcohol consumption dropped in 2020 — but tourism losses may be at play

Per-capita alcohol consumption in Alaska declined during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a contrast to the situation in several other states, according to a newly published study.

Overall Alaska per-capital consumption dropped by 5.3% in 2020 from pre-pandemic levels, according to the study, conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and other institutions. That was the net of a 7.6% decline in beer consumption, a 6.3% decline in wine consumption and a 2.9% decline in spirits consumption, the study said.

The study was published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine. It evaluated alcohol consumption in 10 states — Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Dakota, Minnesota and Tennessee, in addition to Alaska. It compared consumption rates in the early pandemic period, March to November 2020, to historic pre-pandemic rates.

Alaska was the only one of the 10 states found to have a per-capita reduction in all three alcoholic beverage categories. Illinois also had a total decrease in overall per-capita alcohol consumption during the study period, but reductions in beer and wine consumption there were partially offset by an increase in spirits consumption, the study found.

The study comes with a big caveat, according to its authors: It does not factor in tourism losses.

“I believe that states like Alaska, which have a lot of tourism that was disrupted during the pandemic, appear to have stable or decreasing levels of consumption because there were fewer people coming to the state during the study period and consuming alcohol. This analysis didn’t account for that,” Dr. Jarrett Pytell, the study’s lead author, said by email. “Hypothetically, if a state’s usual population was half what it was expected to be and the alcohol consumption was the same, while there was no observed difference, the implication is that the people who remained were consuming more alcohol to make up for those who didn’t come to the state.”

Total visitor volume to Alaska plunged by 82% in the pandemic months of 2020 compared to the same months in 2019, according to a report prepared for the Alaska Travel Industry Association.

In contrast to Alaska, tourism-dependent Colorado had a big increase in per-capita alcohol consumption in 2020, according to the study. That statewide increase was 8.4%, the highest among all the studied states. Though Colorado’s per-capita beer consumption dropped slightly in 2020, consumption of spirits jumped by 16.6% and wine by 10.3%, according to the study.

Colorado sustained big losses in tourism in 2020, though they were not as severe as those in Alaska.

Florida, another tourism-dependent state, had losses in that industry as well in 2020. Per-capita alcohol consumption in Florida in 2020 was about the same as that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the study.

Overall, the statistics revealed some troubling signs about a shift to harder liquors, the study said. While the World Health Organization had recommended restrictions on alcohol sales during lockdowns, “nearly every state in the US determined alcohol retailers were ‘essential businesses’ and many increased access by allowing take-away alcohol sales,” it said.

“Clinicians should screen for unhealthy alcohol use, inquire about types of alcohol consumed, and engage patients to reduce consumption or transition to lower-potency beverages,” the study concluded. “Finally, it should be a national imperative to monitor and plan for individual and society-level consequences of increased consumption of high-potency alcohol in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.”