Tourism industry anxiously awaiting visitors

MAT-SU — As the Mat-Su Borough Assembly continues on through their budget deliberations in preparation to pass a budget, the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting Alaskan tourism businesses hard. Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau President Bonnie Quill told the assembly that a 63 percent decrease in bed tax collections is expected over the fiscal year.

“As the mayor has recommended the COVID CARES funds are an appropriate use of funding for the MSCVB based on the devastating economic impact the pandemic has caused the travel and hospitality sector. One million is an accurate number because that is the amount of money of bed tax collections the borough is estimated to lose in FY 21,” said Quill.

Borough voters passed the 5 percent bed tax in 1988. Out of the five percent, 65 percent of those monies go directly to the MSCVB for tourism promotion and the remaining 35 percent is dedicated to tourism infrastructure projects.

“The research both locally, nationally and internationally shows that the success of our economy really relies on the visitor industry, tourism and hospitality. So we were the first to be impacted and hit the hardest but that is what is going to bring our economy back, so support of visitors and hospitality is going to be what brings our economy back,” said Quill.

Since the arrival of the COVID-19 virus in Alaska and subsequent shutdown of tourism industry to out-of-state visitors, tourism industry businesses have regrouped to determine if they should reopen and under what protocols to keep visitors safe. Quill estimates that the later summer months may provide more travelers but the early summer months will be devastating to tourism businesses relying on summer visitors.

“May and June have been a devastating loss. We don’t know yet how July and August are going to turn out so what all the research the travel intentions are telling us is that people want to travel. They have a pent up demand but they’re not ready to yet until protocols are in place so we don’t know when that’s going to be yet,” Quill said.

Staff at the MSCVB have shifted their focus from promoting destinations in the Mat-Su to helping provide resources for their tourism partners. On May 19, Quill announced that MSCVB staff have arranged six webinars and eight videos and will host another webinar on Friday at 11 a.m., entitled “Highway Neighbors: A Virtual Road Trip Around Alaska” that will be open to the public.

Quill said that the MSCVB has prepared four stages of returning to business as usual. Stage one was to wait, socially distance and flatten the curve while stage two is to get ready, reduce social distancing and assess the impacts of COVID-19 on the tourism industry. Stage 3 is to get set and back into planning trips and stage four is to go, actively encouraging visitors to come to the Mat-Su. Quill said that MSCVB plans to announce an in-state travel campaign with Visit Anchorage and Explore Fairbanks once the time is right with the hashtag #showupforalaska.

“What this pandemic has revealed to everyone is that tourism has played a foundational role in our economy,” said Quill.