Tourism grows up.

• Author: Carroll, Ed
• Position: Alaska's tourism industry

Visitor numbers continue growing steadily, attracting investors to help Alaska's tourism industry meet the demand.

The growth of Alaska's tourism industry may have slowed a little in 1995, but a long list of big-ticket investments planned for 1996 shows faith among industry leaders that the state's appeal will continue strong growth. Catering to visitors is still the state's business boomer, with broad impacts in transportation, construction, infrastructure development and small business formation.

But tourism is also an increasingly complex business in Alaska. As the private sector scrambles to give visitors what they want, some worry that existing infrastructure and attractions are growing too crowded. Growth is also challenged by the state government's fiscal problems, as support for tourism marketing and facilities is reduced, and local governments respond to budget cuts with user fees and taxes aimed at tourists.

Tina Lindgren, executive director of the Alaska Visitor Association (AVA), says just fewer than 1.2 million visitors came to Alaska through September, after breaking the 1 million barrier just a few years ago. Lindgren says conservative estimates peg the growth in visitors at about 5 percent for 1995, a slight downturn from several years of 6 percent growth. They seem to have spent less, too.

The AVA, representing member-businesses throughout the state, speaks for many of the largest tourism companies and organizations. And while the AVA has worked closely with state agencies to research and develop the industry, Lindgren readily admits that statistics in the business can be difficult to interpret. "It's difficult to draw conclusions," Lindgren says. "It could be that visitors are spending less, or that it's split up between more people in the business."

Pete Carlson, a tourism development specialist with the state's Division of Tourism, estimates visitor numbers were up by about 6 percent in 1995, despite the loss of several scheduled cruise ship sailings due to accidents that took two ships out of service. And while the loss of cruise sailings - the force that drives the single largest visitor segment - hurt some companies in Southeast and the Railbelt, independent and package tour visitors helped keep the numbers up.

"We had a good season in '95, despite the loss of those ships," Carlson says. "We still came out ahead of last year, overall."

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