Tourism outlook positive

In the last few weeks, the Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau attended two national travel shows, and anecdotal reports from tour operators point to an encouraging outlook for the 2014 season.

At the American Bus Association Marketplace event in Nashville, Tenn., I met with tour operators who sell Alaska packages or who are looking to develop new tours to Alaska. Every operator we met with indicated they are, at the bare minimum, flat with last year’s numbers, while many of them indicated they are booking at a better rate than a year ago. This is great news for the local tourism economy.

These tour operators bring large numbers of visitors to the Mat-Su, and by attending the convention we build relationships with the operators that often lead to increased visitation, and thus increased spending on local tours, hotel nights and related items. While there, we informed operators about new products in the local tourism industry, helped them plan itineraries and offered assistance in the form of familiarization tours for their product development efforts.

Following the ABA event, we attended the Los Angeles Times Travel Show, which is a consumer event. Participating in the state of Alaska’s booth, we were very encouraged by the interest levels shown by the attendees. Many made their way to the Alaska booth first, with long lists of questions about what they should see and do while they are in Alaska. Many indicated they had already purchased airline tickets for the summer season and were in the process of piecing together finalized itineraries.

The state of Alaska tourism marketing campaign has scheduled national network television ads, there are dozens of reality television programs that showcase Alaska’s beauty, and marketing efforts from local CVBs have made Alaska appealing for visitors. Awareness has only grown the last few years, and we’ve seen that result in consistent bed tax collection figures in the Mat-Su Borough the last three years.

Internationally, we’ve seen increases in visitation as well, and the state of Alaska, in cooperation with local visitors bureaus such as ours, has a targeted marketing campaign to reach these visitors, who spend more and stay longer according to industry research.

We’ve got a very positive outlook that summer 2014 will shape up to be another banner year for tourism in the Mat-Su Valley, but as an industry, we aren’t sitting back and patting ourselves on the back. We’re continuing to market the Mat-Su Valley as a premier Alaska destination, and that effort never takes a break.

Casey Ressler (casey@alaskavisit.com) is the marketing and communications manager for the Mat-Su CVB.