Alaska Tourism: A Move to the Future.

• Author: LINDGREN, TINA
• Position: Brief Article

In the past 30 years, Americans have developed a new attitude toward simply, it has become very important to them. This positive outlook on travel, spurred by the Baby Boomer generation, is radically different than that of their parents, for whom the luxury of vacations placed a distant second to material goods like washing machines and cars. Since the early to mid-1990s, travel in the U.S. and around the world has enjoyed phenomenal growth, with projections from the Travel Industry Association of America estimating domestic and international travel expenditures to increase 5.1 percent to $577 billion in 2001.

With this emphasis on the personal value of leisure comes the realization that travel is an individual experience. Visitors come from a variety of places, with a variety of interests and no one option, alternative or advertising medium will appeal to everyone. Those in the visitor industry must develop a wide selection of activities, attractions and experiences to entice visitors to their destinations. To take advantage of the diverse market, the Alaska Travel Industry Association--a newly formed organization that will conduct Alaska's statewide tourism marketing--is developing promotion strategies in sync with emerging tourism trends and niche market travelers. ATIA is an outgrowth of several tourism agencies.

Technology for Trip Planning

One booming trend among visitors is use of the Internet. Almost all Internet users are also travelers, with the number of online travelers growing 190 percent in the last three years. About 52.2 million online travelers used the Internet for trip planning in 1999, up 54 percent from the previous year. The Web is also providing a new distribution channel for travel products. The number of travelers actually making online bookings increased 146 percent in 1999 alone.

Because of this astounding increase in the Web-travel connection, Alaska will be putting forth a larger statewide Internet presence in the future. The online version of the State Vacation Planner continues to be placed on the visitor Website, www.travelalaska.com, and it will be upgraded with more features and greater navigability to provide consumers with an easy and direct connection to tourism businesses and information on niche markets.

Adventure Travel

A key visitor niche Alaska will pursue is adventure travel and ecotourism, a market for which the state has ample recreational possibilities. In a 1998 Travel Industry Association...