Alaska is a growing global convention destination: attracting and planning international meetings.

• Author: Slaten, Russ
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Conventions & Meetings

Over the past several years Visit Anchorage has seen an increase in international meetings taking place in the state's business center of Anchorage. About 11 percent of Visit Anchorage's convention business is international, with the goal to raise that to about 15 percent in the next three years. National conventions groups consist of about 29 percent of the meetings in Anchorage, with statewide groups making up 60 percent of the pie, according to Julie Dodds, director of convention sales at Visit Anchorage.

Targeting International Meetings

With the uncertainty of the local economy, Visit Anchorage has taken steps to attract groups outside the state and increase Alaska's profile through successful meetings in Anchorage.

Tourism and meetings are great economic drivers in times of uncertainty, Dodds says.

"Tourism and conventions create a lot of income for the state that wasn't here before," Dodds says. "It's not just you and me passing it around, it's brand new money that visitors leave here after they've gone, so it's helpful to the economy."

About 95 percent of Visit Anchorage business is aimed at associations, Dodds says. Visit Anchorage joined the International Congress and Convention Association nearly ten years ago, which is made up of convention and visitor bureaus from across the globe. It provides a large database of meetings that move around the world, and as a member, Visit Anchorage gets access to all of the international groups along with attendee numbers, where they've been, and the type of rotation for visiting cities.

"This past year we added about ninety-seven new potential international accounts," Dodds says. "That means the meetings would fit here. It doesn't mean all groups are bringing their meetings here; we have to start pitching Anchorage as a destination for those accounts."

The main difference Dodds sees in the tourism side of Visit Anchorage versus the conventions side of the business is the time frames that people book their trips. Tour operators book trips for visitors in the same year or the next, while national associations typically book three to five years in advance, and international associations can plan five to eight years ahead, she says.

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"International groups are a little different from national groups in that they really don't mind to travel," Dodds says. "Whereas Americans might say, 'Wow, it's going to take a whole day to get there,' you have to overcome that barrier. But...