Destination Denali: Premier Alaska Tours pivots from concierge to host.

• Author: Pesznecker, Katie
• Position: TOURISM

Premier Alaska Tours built its business on providing Lower 48 and international tour companies an Alaska-based army of employees, vehicles, and expertise. Because Premier markets almost entirely to the national and international wholesale market versus the individual traveler, many Alaskans have never heard of them. That's about to change: Premier is stepping up in a big way with an ambitious development at Denali National Park & Preserve.

The planned development will unfold across 50 acres on the shoreline of Otto Lake, just outside Healy, west of the Parks Highway. From the site's 1,788-foot elevation, the lodge-like boathouse and 300-room hotel will offer views of mountain scenery and, in the winter, blazing displays of aurora. Rounding out the complex: paved vehicle access, boardwalks for nature strolls, an on-site restaurant, employee housing, a bus maintenance facility, and more.

Peter Grunwaldt, co-founder and co-owner of Premier Alaska Tours along with Tim Worthen, says the first-of-its-kind development will offer a new experience to the discerning Denali traveler. Premier already interacts with some 250,000 Alaskans and visitors annually. Some of that is off-season transport for military, industry, and schools. But the vast majority are interactions with tourists--transporting them via buses and luxury train cars, moving their luggage, taking them to the state's special places, all at the service of other tour companies. Premier having its own branded hotel and property built into that experience makes sense, Grunwaldt says.

"We will build this product into their trip experience," he says. "Most people who visit the park stay in the canyon where most of the hotels are. This is high on a plateau and the views are just amazing. I think you'll have a bit of a wilderness feeling, closer to a wilderness experience than a city experience. It should be a really unique, special place in Denali National Park."

First Foray

The Denali development is the first of its kind for Premier, whose brick-and-mortar holdings to date consist of year-round offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks, seasonal workspace in Denali, and facilities to maintain, clean, and park their fleet of 160 passenger buses, Sprinter vans, luggage haulers, and other vehicles.

For its foray into the hotel-owning business, Denali was the right place to start.

"Denali is the one destination that everybody thinks they have to go to," Grunwaldt says. "Denali is the bottleneck. There's...