Tourism Takeaways: Insights into 2020 and beyond from visitor bureaus around the state.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: TOURISM

This year has been devastating for Alaska's tourism sector, which experienced a slump in visitor numbers, substantial revenue losses, and other impacts dispensed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But what does that mean for the future of the state's visitor industry? To address this and other important questions, visitor bureaus statewide shared their insights on Alaska's tourism sector.

The Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) is hopeful about tourism's prospects for 2021. Improvements in rapid testing capability--and hopefully a vaccine--will go a long way toward supporting prospective travelers' decisions to visit Alaska, says ATIA President and CEO Sarah Leonard. "ATIA has also developed industry protocols for safe business operations for tourism businesses and is promoting Alaska's wide-open spaces as a safe travel destination," she says. "While funding is limited, ATIA will continue to keep Alaska's brand in the travel marketplace to encourage potential travelers to keep Alaska top of mind."

According to Leonard, 2020 was supposed to be a record year for tourism in Alaska, building upon 2019's more than 2.25 million visitors. The pandemic, however, brutally interrupted that trajectory. "While we will not see record numbers in the near future," she says, "we hope to reach comparable numbers within the next two to three years."

In typical years, Alaska's tourism industry contributes more than $4 billion in economic activity to the state, Leonard says. That includes more than $100 million in visitor-generated revenue to the state and more than $88 million to local and borough budgets. "With 99.9 percent of cruise ship sailings cancelled in Alaska, that revenue wasn't captured this summer," she says.

This spring and summer, ATIA ran informal industry surveys in which more than 85 percent of respondents anticipated losing more than 50 percent of their revenue in 2020. Cash flow has been a huge issue, especially when many businesses take deposits months in advance, Leonard says. She adds, "Some of our industry businesses were able to use CARES Act and other federal and state funding to cover essential costs this year."

Leonard has learned several key take-aways from dealing with the pandemic's impact. For example, the pandemic underscored that Alaska is in a challenging position when it comes to attracting visitors. She explains: "We're a longhaul destination, so we don't have the benefits of other states when it comes to short driving vacations and travel across state lines. Our industry is dependent on cruise and air for visitor travel [60 percent of visitors travel by cruise ship and 36 percent by air]."

She adds: "As we look forward to the return of travel, tourism businesses will place an even greater emphasis on health, safety, and sustainable operations. People in the tourism industry are also amazingly resilient and entrepreneurial, and I'm already hearing about businesses developing new attractions, activities, and processes to promote safe travel."

ATIA has implemented various initiatives to navigate the daunting landscape etched by the pandemic. For example, working with regional and local destination marketing organizations across the state and with the support of GCI, Alaska Airlines, ACS, the Alaska Railroad, and others, ATIA launched a "Show Up for Alaska" campaign to support in-state visitation to local tourism businesses. Explaining the significance of this effort, Leonard says, "By encouraging Alaskans to explore our own backyard, we were able to support local businesses as well as the communities that rely on taxes and user fees to support local budgets."

The association will continue focusing on its mission to support its industry and promote Alaska as a premier travel destination. "While marketing funding will be tight this year, we will continue to promote our industry protocols for...