Visitor bureau a no-brainer for Wasilla

A grand opportunity awaits the residents of Wasilla Monday night. But it will be up to the city council to open the door to that opportunity.

At a special 5:30 p.m. work session preceding the council's regular meeting, an already defeated proposal to award $50,000 to the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of developing a visitors bureau will be reconsidered.

The defeat of the proposal, at the April 9 council meeting, is puzzling in itself. After all, the council last year voted to distribute the grant following a bid process.

As it turned out, only one bidder - the chamber - presented a plan. Despite the fact that the chamber's proposal met all city requirements for the grant money, the council reneged.

The positive economic impact of the tourism industry cannot be overstated. It is a growth industry that relies on a renewable resource. It provides jobs to Alaskans and revenue to local businesses, which in turn fire up the engines of the local economy by circulating the money back through the system.

In short, tourism and the visitor industry have the potential to benefit everyone.

According to Alaska Travel Industry Association statistics, 1.6 million people visited the state in 2006. That's up from 1.2 million in 2001 and nearly double the 861,100 visitors to the state in 1993. How many other industries can boast that kind of growth?

The 1.6 million who came to Alaska in 2006 spent an average of $934 each, excluding what it cost them to get here. Considering the Palmer-Wasilla area received 139,000 of those 1.6 million visitors, it is no stretch to assume they left close to $130 million behind before leaving.

Suddenly, the city's $50,000 investment seems like a drop in the bucket.

Nonetheless, anyone who thinks it is OK to &#8220settle” for $130 million ought also to ponder what might have been, since the Southcentral area in general received a full 907,000 visitors in 2006. That's a lot of folks who didn't make the trip to Mat-Su, despite being in the neighborhood.

So what's missing? Marketing. Which is where an enthusiastic and well-organized visitors bureau comes into play.

This is a golden opportunity for Wasilla, and it should not be squandered. We urge the council to remember all that is at stake Monday night.