Good, bad news in tourism reports

The Alaska Travel Industry Association released this week findings on the travel intentions of visitors considering Alaska as a destination. While the findings don’t paint the rosiest of pictures for the upcoming tourism season, good news can be found in the reports.

The Travel Intentions Study and the Alaska Conversion Study both aim to identify the most effective and efficient advertising sources used to convert responses to actual visitors to Alaska. ATIA is the primary marketing organization for the state, and ITS efforts aid all the communities around the state in attracting visitors and tourism dollars.

In 2009, the total circulation of all 2009 advertising sources was 47.6 million, which generated a total of 591,764 inquires. An inquiry is when someone requests a state vacation planner, for example, or a “North to Alaska” driving guide. The 591,000 inquiries represent an 11 percent increase over the same time in 2008, a good sign that people are interested in learning more about Alaska and all the things to see and do while they are vacationing.

While inquires rose, conversion to actual visitors fell in 2009. In 2008, 19.2 percent of those who inquired converted to actual visitors, while in 2009, 12.3 percent converted to visitors. You can easily summarize why that conversion rate fell — the economy.

Tourism is particularly vulnerable to downturns in the economy because virtually all of the spending for travel and tourism is discretionary income. It stands to reason that in times of economic volatility, people are more apt to save their money rather than spend it on a long-haul trip to Alaska. The Travel Intentions Study found that one in three people who said they definitely were not going to visit indicated that money/good deals/free trips is what would have to happen for them to consider visiting in 2010.

The good news is that the reports from the national level show that travel is projected to stay flat in 2010 and start to pick up as the economy improves. “The new normal” is a term being bandied about in the tourism industry. We know it will take a few years to get back to pre-recession numbers, but we’re confident that the worst is behind us.

When looking at the conversion rates, it’s also important to remember that not every visitor comes the year he or she inquired about Alaska. In fact, the four-year rate of conversion is 34 percent (according to the 2009 Alaska Conversion Study), meaning that within four years of inquiring, more than a third actually came to Alaska. That’s heartening news considering the number of inquiries is up and the economy appears to be stabilizing. If we can continue those trends, we’ll see growth in the coming years.

The Mat-Su Convention & Visitors Bureau and Alaska destinations rely heavily on the research efforts of ATIA to better target our marketing efforts to visitors. With cooperative marketing among the Alaska communities and ATIA, we increase our reach while keeping costs down, a win-win situation for the entire state.

Casey Ressler (casey@alaskavisit.com) is the marketing and communications manager at the Mat-Su Convention & Visitors Bureau.