Cautious optimism for summer visitor season; Gateway Visitor Center building complete

People are concerned about the 2026 visitor season. Fuel prices are high, and consumer prices are rising as inflation rekindles.

Casey Ressler, president and CEO of the Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau, is cautious but still optimistic about the upcoming season.

Ressler briefed the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly at its meeting last Tuesday, April 7.

So far things are looking good. Short-term rentals are up 22% so far this year, but winter is always a slow season. But looking foreward, pre-season bookings for rooms are up 23% for May and 25% per June, he told the assembly. The hope is that people who booked reservations will actually show up, given the uncertainties over rising costs.

But there is a large increase in air carrier capacity this summer with all carriers adding flights from Denver, Seattle and Minneapolis. There is also a 15 increase expected for cruise ships coming to Southcentral Alaska across the Gulf of Alaska, which will bring visitors who typically travel within Alaska to Denali National Park and to Mat-Su.

But rising costs will eat into visitors’ budgets for spending once they are in Alaska, and it’s a worry. “I just booked a flight to Portland for $700,” Ressler said, a fare much higher than normal.

On a more upbeat note, Ressler said the new Gateway Visitors Center construction is essentially complete for its building and work is beginning on the interior finishings and exhibits. The center will open to the public on June 1, as scheduled, he told the assembly. Assembly members asked Ressler where most travelers from overseas are coming from these days.

The German-speaking countries of Europe and, surprisingly, Australia, he said. Japan was once a major country of origin for international visitors but cutbacks in direct Asia-Alaska flights by Japan Airlines and other carriers have taken a toll in that.

On other assembly actions, members approved a number of contract adjustments but were split, until Mayor Edna DeVries broke the tie by voting, over approval of a rebid by Ficklin Construction LLC for a contract on annual road maintenance in the Meadow Lakes Road Service Area. The contract amount was $1.186 million.

The assembly also passed a resolution, RS 26-028, opposing a bill pending in the Legislature that would, among other things, adjust the allocation of state funds for charter schools and correspondence students so that local school districts can reserve some funds to cover administrative costs. The Matanuska Susitna Borough School District has passed a similar resolution. The assembly passed the resolution with only assembly person Dee McKee voting no. Assembly member Micheal Bowles sponsored the resolution.

The bill is Senate Bill 277, sponsored by the Senate Education Committee. A hearing was held in the education committee Juneau March 18. Assembly member Dimitri Fonov sponsored the resolution. Objections to the bill stem mainly from a perception that it will cut funding for charter schools and correspondence study in favor of traditional “brick and mortar” schools operated by school districts.

But there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the bill. SB 277 actually requires cooperative agreements on the allocations of funds between school districts and operators of programs, which are outside Mat-Su, which offer correspondence study programs. This is proposed so that school districts can cover some costs they incur for activities like sports that correspondence students can participate in.

The bill also increases funding for correspondence students with state support at the same per-pupil funding as is now paid for students in traditional schools. Currently, correspondence students get 90% of the state support given children in traditional schools. The senate bill would raise it to 100%, or at the same level of support. SB 277 makes other increases to education funding, such as to the Base Student Allocation formula that guides all state funding for schools and bonuses to school districts for gains in students’ reading proficiency.

On another matter, the assembly also passed a resolution, RS 26-027, asking the state of Alaska to review Division of Motor Vehicles processes and consider modifications to facilitate renewal of drivers’ licenses by refugees. Assembly member Dimitri Fonov sponsored that resolution.

On other matters, during the audience participation parts of the meeting the assembly members heard continued pleas to ask Mat-Su’s school board to keep open three elementary schools set to close, particularly the Meadow Lakes school that serves a large number of disadvantaged students. If that school closes these children will be dispersed to other elementary schools which are unlikely to be able to serve them at the same level, people argued in the open session.

It is striking, several people said, that more financial support for charter and correspondence students is being advocated in Mat-Su while cuts to service for special needs students could occur through closures of local elementary schools that offer the special services.