JUNEAU -- Nothing offers more vivid testimony to the need for more
intensive promotion of Alaska than the latest visitor arrival
figures.
The new statistics, compiled by the Juneau-based McDowell Group
for the state's Division of Tourism, are for summer 1998. The
figures indicate that the rate of growth in visitor traffic dropped
precipitously, to 1.3% in 1998 from 5.3% in 1997 and 10.1% in
1996.
Although this summer's figures are not yet in, not many in the
travel business believe they will show any significant improvement.
The downward trend mirrors the drop in the funding of the state's
tourism effort.
The proposed new setup, with the single body Alaska Travel
Industry Association trying to broaden the base of contributors, is
aimed at getting the state's promotional budget back to the kind of
level at which it can realistically hope to reverse the recent
downturn.
An apparent drop in consumers' desire to visit the state is as
troubling to the industry as the actual declining growth rate. A
recent study by the Travel Industry Association of America
indicated Alaska was 12th among the "must-visit" destinations
identified by members of the public in 1998. In 1997, Alaska was
eighth on the list.