Background ‘Alaska is differentfrom every other destination in the world. Every day offers an unforgettablememory: a mother moose and calf, glaciers and mountains, unique Nativecultures, our Russian legacy and Gold Rush days. Even lifelong Alaskans areamazed! In these fewsentences the Governor, Bill Walker, has perfectly managed to portray theuniqueness of Alaska and intrigue people to visit and explore this ‘Great Land’or the ‘Last Frontier’ as it is also called. It is rightfullyknown as ‘The Last Frontier’ as it is located at the northernmost point ofAmerica’s west coast, bordering with Canada on the East while its other sidesare surrounded by water. Despite not being ontop of the list of the most visited destinations, over the last decades Alaskahas been gaining increasing visitations and popularity amongst tourists.
Historicallyspeaking, Alaska was occupied by Indigenous groups, such as the Aleuts, Haidaand Tlingit, who are thought to have migrated from North America and lived onthe land for thousands of years. In the 18th century, Alaska was’discovered’ by Europeans who mostly exploited the Alaskan sea otters for theirfur. It was colonised by the Russians until 1867 when the Unites States ofAmerica bought the area for $7.200.000 signing the ‘Seward’s Folly’ deal.During that era, Logging, Mining and Commercial Fishing were the leadingIndustries in Alaska. In 1959 it officially became the 49th State ofthe United States of America.
Nowadays, even thoughit is considered to be the largest State in the U.S. covering a total area of1.717.856 km², it is also the third least inhabited State having around 742.
000residents, and almost half of them reside in Anchorage. Due to its location,climate and diverse geographical and terrain features consisting of islands,volcanoes, lakes, mountains, forests, and fossil fuels, its main sources ofincome come from thefishing Industry, Oil and Natural Gas Industries and in recent yearsfrom the Tourism Industry which is steadily booming. Focusing on the TourismIndustry, it is worthy to mention that what makes Alaska even more fascinatingto the visitors is the fact that it is a land of huge contrasts. It is divided in fiveregions with distinct differences, thus, accommodating every one taste andneeds.
(See Appendix 1) APPENDIX 1Alaska’s Five Regions The first region isthe ‘Far North’ (Appendix 2), where the Arctic Circle is and where the InupiatEskimos live, still fighting to preserve their lifestyle and traditions. There,visitors can choose to explore the coasts or mountain ranges, enjoy the wildlife,go back in History to the place where the Great Gold rush happened and/or visitthe Arctic National Park and Preserve. APPENDIX 2Far North Region The second region isthe ‘Inside Passage’ (Appendix 3). It is a natural wonder as it was shaped by glaciersmillions of years ago and is has fjords that are home to bald eagles, sealions, porpoises and whales. Apart from the rich wildlife, visitors can see thetowering totem poles that the native tribes Tlingit, Haida and TsimshianIndians built, as well as the notorious onion-dome churches built by theRussians during the Colonisation period. APPENDIX 3 Inside Passage Region The third region isthe ‘Interior’ (Appendix 4) which as the name suggests it is Alaska’s mainland.
Initially it was home to Athabascan Indians and later to gold miners, farmersand fur trappers. There mountaineering-enthusiasts can see the Denali which isthe highest mountain peak of North America, whereas wildlife-lovers canencounter grizzly bears, caribous, and the Willow Ptarmigan which is the statebird. What is more interesting is that depending on the visitors’ mood, theycan visit the ‘Interior’ (or any other region) during summer when they willparadoxically experience sunny nights, or visit the ‘Interior’ in winter whenthey can see the mesmerising northern lights.
APPENDIX 4Interior Region The fourth region isthe ‘Southwest’ (Appendix 5) which as they say it is a ‘natural paradise’.Visitors can go fishing next to brown bears that roam in the area, visit theKatmai National Park which is a landscape of volcanoes, and those with a moreadventurous side can explore the ancient Aleut villages on one of the AleutianIslands that are spread 1000 miles across the ocean heading towards Asia. APPENDIX 5Southwest Region The fourth region isthe ‘Southwest’ (Appendix 5) which as they say it is a ‘natural paradise’.Visitors can go fishing next to brown bears that roam in the area, visit theKatmai National Park which is a landscape of volcanoes, and those with a moreadventurous side can explore the ancient Aleut villages on one of the AleutianIslands that are spread 1000 miles across the ocean heading towards Asia. APPENDIX 5Southwest Region AVSP – Alaska VisitorStatistic Programme As with any market’product’ knowing the target audience’s profile, needs and likings will helpcreate the best version of the ‘product’ (in this case Alaska being thedestination of choice among travellers), thus attracting more ‘buyers’.For this reason, theState of Alaska, funded by the Department of Commerce, Community and EconomicDevelopment (DCCED), occasionally carries a study to get a more comprehensiveinsight on its visitors’ profiles.
The following resultsare taken from their latest survey, carried out during the 2016 high-season(May -September) compared to the findings of their previous surveys dated backto 2006. As the graph belowshows, even though there have been some minor fluctuations throughout the10-year period, the number of visitors in the summer of 2016 was 1.857.500which is the highest number of visitors ever recorded.
Interestingly, thefindings of the study show that 82% of visitors travel to Alaska forvacation/pleasure purposes, compared to the rest 18% who travel for visitingfriends/relatives, business and business/pleasure purposes. Both data confirmthe increasing popularity of Alaska as a tourism destination.Regarding thevisitors’ country of origin, the results show that there ere has been an only 1-2% changeover the last ten years. In 2016, 84% of visitors came from the U.
S, 9% fromOther International areas and 7% from Canada. The same year, the main means oftransport used to get to Alaska was by Cruise Ships (55%), followed by Planes(40%), and Highway/Ferries (5%). In terms of gender,the number of travellers is equally halved between males and females throughoutthe years, but it is worth to mention that when asked for the first time in2016, women seemed more likely to plan the trip (53%) compared to men (38%),leaving the remaining 9% planning to outside parties. Between 2006 and 2016approximately 60% of visitors travelled in groups of 2, compared to around 18%who travelled alone, and the rest who travelled in larger groups consistingthree, four and/or five or more people. Visitors’ age isanother interesting find, as the majority – almost two-thirds – are people overthe age of 50. Moving on, thepercentage of visitors purchasing multi-day packages compared to independenttravellers did not have any dramatic changes during the last decade, averaging67% and 33% respectively. However, there seems to be a notable 2% increase inindependent travellers and 2% decrease in package purchases every five years.
Regarding thedestinations travellers choose, Southeast and Southcentral remain the twomost-visited regions since 2006 (having 67% and 52% visitations respectively in2016) even though both face a steady decrease throughout the years, followed byInterior (29%), and Southwest and Far North (approximately 3% each).More specifically,the top 10 destinations visited in 2016 are: Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway,Anchorage, Glacier Bay National Park, Seward, Denali National Park, Fairbanks,Hoonah/Icy Strait Point and Talkeetna. As discussed earlier,after arriving to Alaska the visitor has a plethora of activities to choosefrom.
According to the study, the ranking of the top ten activities has barelychanged during the 10 year period. The most common activities include:shopping, wildlife viewing, day cruises, hiking/nature walks, city/sightseeingtours, museums, and fishing. Finally, it isimportant to mention the findings regarding Visitor Spending. Since 2006 therehas been a remarkable increase of 30% in the total Visitor Spending (soaringfrom $1.51 billion in 2006 to $1.
97 billion in 2016) which shows the stronggrowth in visitations in Alaska and the huge impact of the Tourism Industry inthe state’s income.The average visitorspending per person and by categories can be seen in more details in the chartsbelow. Challenges, MarketingPlans & Promotion It is needless to saythat a great number of visitors to any destination help with tax revenue,traveller spending in its various communities, job creation and businessgrowth.Thus, tourismmarketing and promotion plays a vital role in establishing more destinationvisitations year by year as competition is extremely high. Over the lastdecades, Alaska has successfully managed to implement various techniques in itstourism marketing plan, which include: Advertising;Public/media relations; Domestic and international sales missions and tradeshows; Travel guide development; Toll-free telephone travel planningassistance; Travel information response mailings; Direct mail advertising;Internet site development and promotion; Cooperative marketing with surroundingregions; Domestic and international operator familiarisation (FAM) tours;sales. Unfortunatelyhowever, despite all the positive outcomes and clear evidence that Alaska’sTourism Industry will continue to grow in the future, due to fiscal challengesfor the State’s budget the State of Alaska dramatically cut down the tourismmarketing funding, from $10-$16 million in previous years to a mere $1.
5million in 2017. Additionally, the Legislature (HB 256) asked the tourismmarketing board ‘to develop a long-term funding plan for destination marketingwith less reliance on state operating dollars’. For this reason,Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) and Industry Partners are currentlytrying to create a more sustainable and reliable funding plan through a TourismImprovement District (TID) model. The explanation ofTID in their own words is that: ‘The TID model provides a self-assessmentframework, a mix of current and new revenue and is focused on visitors withless impact to residents. A state-wide orAlaska TID could be created by state statute and would identify a voluntarylevel of assessment or fee for industry businesses to pay into a fund forAlaska tourism marketing.
While Alaska’s Constitution does not allow fordedicated funds, creating an industry self-assessment model through a TIDallows the legislature and Governor a way to allocate an investment in tourismmarketing.'(A more detailedexplanation of how the TID model works can been seen in Appendix 7) APPENDIX 7TID – TourismImprovement District Model Along with theircurrent Sustaining Partners (such as Denali Level, Alyeska Level, ArcticLevel) who play a key role in the growth of ATIA programmes, ATIA envisionsto: help Alaskabecome a top visitor destination; double the industry’s economic impact to thestate; secure sustainable tourism marketing funding at $30,000,000; integrateyear-round visitor experiences with a goal of five million visitors; andcontinue to protect the environment, the wildlife and Alaska’s unique culturalidentity. Further Development, Management & Sustainable Investment Solutions Apart from thefunding challenges the Tourism Industry faces, there are also other issues thatneed to be addressed and resolved to improve Alaska’s welfare in the future.
First and foremost, thereare reasonable concerns regarding the impact large amounts of visitors have tothe environment. The creation of Wildlife Conservations for visitors to seeanimals without disturbing their natural habitat, as well as the use ofmulti-use roads to accommodate all means of transport (including hikers andcyclists) to keep excessive noise and pollution away from unspoiled landscapes,are some of the measures already taken by the State and they should constantlywork to improve this.Also, as Alaska issurrounded by water and has always thrived on making the most of thisgeographic feature, there should continue to be emphasis on marine utilisation.For example thegovernment should be having an important role for the monitoring andcontrolling and management of the marine tourism. That could be accomplished bythe continue establishing of fisheries control agencies and marine parksmanagement authorities.More Individualcompanies could invest in chartering fishing boats, sea kayak tour guides,whale watch cruises and charter yachts companies and cruise ships.Furthermore theprivate sector should invest more in tourism by chartering more fishing boats,and yachts. Addition to that sea kayak for tour guides and whale watch cruisescould be arranged.
Also, Alaska OceanObserving System – AOOS does a great job by observing and reporting coastaloceanic data for the protection and preservation of the Alaskan oceans, andrelies on various stakeholders, such as mariners, fishermen, scientists,educators, and coastal security operations. Moreover,urbanisation and globalisation may not only threaten the native and localcommunities, but also the economy. For this, the State should promote localbusiness opportunities and encourage the younger generation to take the lead inentrepreneurships that could focus on touristic interests, and glorify theuniqueness of the local communities.
Lastly, Alaska shouldstop being so reliant on its main source of income which comes from fossilfuels. Oil is a non-renewable source of energy and apart from the fact that itcould run out at some point, there are also many competitors who producecheaper and unconventional forms of it. Instead, the State should focus oninvesting on the improvement of the infrastructure and promote smart growth inits communities which will not be solely dependent on oil extraction.Allocating a bigger budget to the Tourism Industry could result in biggerincome, as this is the type of industry that flourishes on the ‘give and take’policy. To conclude, despiteall the challenges it is facing, Alaska is a rising travel destination that hasa lot to offer to its visitors and if all the right actions are taken it willrightfully show its great potential and be among the strongest competitors inthe tourism market.