Numbers and Upper Valley Tourism

Note:  Casey Ressler of the Mat-Su CVB will be discussing tourism data at the Talkeetna Chamber of Commerce General Meeting on Thursday.

Each year, the Alaska Division of Economic Development commissions a report that looks at the previous summer’s tourism numbers.  The numbers for 2014 are not far off, and KTNA’s Phillip Manning took a look at some trends that could affect the Upper Valley:

In the middle of December, tourism is far from the minds of many.  Still, tourism numbers are very important to communities like Talkeetna.  For the period of October 2012 to September 2013, a record 1.96 million visitors traveled to Alaska, most of them for summer vacations.  Statewide, they spent $1.3 billion, not including the cost of travel to get here.

How much of that money comes to this area? Casey Ressler of the Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau says that drilling down numbers specific to the borough and the Upper Valley can be tricky.

“That’s the challenge for us, because we don’t have a cruise port or an airport where we can count the folks who come in.  So, we use the bed tax as kind of a measuring stick.”

The borough’s income from bed tax has not grown at the same rate as in other areas, but neither has it fallen.  Casey Ressler explains why that is.

“It’s been steady.  It hasn’t seen a lot of growth, and one of the reasons we haven’t seen a lot of growth in that is that we’re almost at capacity.”

Ressler says there simply aren’t enough rooms in the Mat-Su, and especially the Upper Valley, to accommodate many additional visitors.  While that’s good news for the owners of those lodgings, it does put a cap on future growth.  Casey Ressler says that may change in the future.

“Looking way forward, one of things we’re excited about is the South Denali Visitor center, because we think it will spur on some of that infrastructure development, and bring some more beds on line…”

Casey Ressler does not believe that expansion near the South Denali Visitor Center will hurt the rest of the Upper Valley.  He says the idea is to provide a “Denali experience” to those who do not want to go all the way to Denali National Park.

The numbers that the Mat-Su CVB is using come from the Alaska Visitor Statistics Program.  This year’s numbers have not been completed, but past reports reveal potentially valuable trend information.  For example, just over half of Upper Valley tourism comes from the cruise industry.  Cruise travel in Alaska was down 3% last year, but is projected to increase next year, which could trickle down to the Talkeetna area.

The numbers from the 2014 season are expected to be published by Christmas.