Why did the ATIA board decide to support a tourism assessment?
At a $10 million marketing budget, Alaska spends nearly $2.5 million less on promoting its visitor industry than the national state average. Many of the top U.S. visitor destinations that we compete with directly spend significantly more. Several states spend in excess of $20 million. To be more competitive, Alaska has to increase its existing budget. Because ATIA is the only organization conducting statewide tourism marketing, the association’s board feels obligated to make our state competitive as part of its overall mandate to promote Alaska tourism and tourism businesses. The dilemma for our industry is that a number of our members throughout the Interior and Southcentral portions of our state whose businesses rely upon independent travelers are facing hard times. When businesses face hard times they invest more into marketing to turn their prospects around. From a statewide perspective, we need to make the same concerted effort to invest. .: back to top :.
