Alaska’s summer visitor season steady; winter tourism promises growth

It’s a little early for firm data but tourism operators say the 2024 summer visitor season appears to be about level with 2023, a year that did show growth. Cruise ships, the big driver in the visitor industry, are expected to bring about 1.7 million passengers north this year, about even with last year, cruise operators say.

There’s mixed data on independent travelers but one trend is that those visiting are spending more this year. Visitors to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, mostly independents, accounted for 20% of consumers’ discretionary spending in the region in August, up from 16% in the same month last year. That’s according to credit card data tracked by the Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Winter tourism is doing well and the coming season is poised to grow both in Mat-Su and in Interior Alaska. September marks the start of the “Aurora” season in Interior Alaska, when the skies get dark enough to see the Northern Lights.

With aurora-watching a key winter attraction Fairbanks saw an increase in its 2024 January-through-May municipal hotel/motel “bed tax” revenues of 31%, according to Explore Fairbanks, the regional visitor marketing bureau. However, rising prices for lodging accounts for some of that.

Daily room rates from January through June in Fairbanks averaged $188, a 16% increase over the average of $162 for January through June 2023. Fairbanks hotel and motel occupancy rates averaged 68% for the January through June period, a slight decrease from 70% for the comparable period of 2023. Scott McCrea, CEO of Explore Fairbanks, expressed concern that rising room rates will chill visitor traffic although he sympathizes with rising costs and labor difficulties hotel and motel owners are dealing with.

Short term rentals in Fairbanks increased by 27 percent last winter and spring, tracking a similar increase in Mat-Su. The average daily rate for short-term rentals in Fairbanks was up 54% for the winter period, increasing from $122 per day in 2023 to $188 per day in 2024, McCrea said.

Local bed tax revenues in the peak winter tourism months of March and April revenues were $518,024 and $504,388, which is almost half of the peak summer revenues of $1 million to $1.1 million per month. In contrast, the November through February bed tax revenues were in the $350,000 range per month.

Visitor data on independent travel is mixed. The overall impression among tour operators is that it’s generally flat, but Explore Fairbanks said combined air arrivals and departures at Fairbanks International Airport were up 6%, which is slightly above pre-pandemic 2019 for the period.

Two other indicators for independent travel in the Interior include Alaska Railroad ridership, which was up 9% from January through July compared with the same months of 2023, according to Explore Fairbanks.

Also, visitors to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center in Fairbanks, which is visited by independent more than group travelers, was up 19% for the year through July, with most of this in the summer. One negative note, Explore Fairbanks said, is that Customs and Border Patrol data showed highway travel to Alaska dipped 8% throug July for border crossings.

In another development, the National Park Service said tourism to Alaska’s National Parks, a key attraction for the state, rebounded last year to pre-pandemic levels. About 3.3 million visitors visited Alaska’s 23 national parks in 2023 spending about $1.5 billion during their visits, the park service said.

There were 21,300 people employed in Alaska national parks last year, generating about $839 million in labor income. Total Alaska economic impacts of the national parks reached $2.3 billion, the park service said.