2007 Report to the Community
Presented Jan. 17, 2007
2007 Was A Big Wild Year For Anchorage, Alaska: Bed Tax and Visitors Increase for Alaska’s Largest City
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2007 Was A Big Wild Year For Anchorage, Alaska: Bed Tax and Visitors Increase for Alaska’s Largest City
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – Jan. 17, 2008 – 2007 was a record-breaking year for the visitors industry in Anchorage, Alaska. The city collected $17,543,512.39 at the end of Q3 2007. The projected total bed tax for 2007 is $ 20,640,477 an anticipated 7.5 percent increase over 2006. Finalized bed tax numbers will be available from the Municipality of Anchorage in mid-February 2008. The figure was released today at the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau’s (ACVB) annual “Report to the Community” membership luncheon at the Egan Center.
“As the Destination Marketing Organization for the city, ACVB’s mission is to ensure Anchorage’s Big Wild Life™ remains top-of-mind for meeting planners, media, travel trade professionals and potential visitors to the state,” says Julie Saupe, ACVB president and CEO. “As a result of these efforts, 1.7 million people visited the state in 2007 with the majority of these visitors spending several days in the city, laying a solid foundation to spread Anchorage's Big Wild Life message.”
ACVB’s convention sales team sold or booked 629 meetings with an estimated economic impact (EEI) of more than $96 million. With the expanded convention capacity afforded Anchorage’s convention facilities, ACVB secured several large-scale conventions for the city including: the American Astronomical Society scheduled for 2012 with 1,100 delegates, the American Association of Professional Landmen scheduled for 2010 with 1,000 delegates, and the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, scheduled for 2008 with 1,300 delegates.
The largest convention currently booked for the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center is the U.S.A. Canada Lions Leadership Forum arriving in 2011 with more than 3,500 delegates.
More than 800,000 visitors explored Anchorage and surrounding areas in 2007 for an EEI of $150,727,179 (as of Nov. 2007). The ACVB Tourism Development Sales team provided training to more than 2,790 travel agents and tour operators on what Anchorage has to offer visitors. Working with travel trade professionals from China, Japan, Germany, Uruguay and other countries, ACVB positioned Anchorage as a premiere leisure destination in the growing international market.
In 2007, ACVB’s Communications & Marketing department pulled in top awards for its efforts. For the second year in a row, Anchorage.net was presented with a 2007 Web Award for outstanding achievement in Web site development from the Web Marketing Association.Anchorage.net also received the coveted Silver Davey award in 2007.
Traffic on Anchorage.net increased significantly for the year, reaching a milestone of more than 1 million visitors. The site received a total of more than 824,846 unique monthly users and more than five million page views.
ACVB’s public relations and marketing programs were recognized by the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) recently, including first place awards for the 2007 Official Anchorage Visitors Guide and accompanying products, the Anchorage: Big Wild Life™ Sweepstakes, the World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO) and web design for Anchorage.net.
ACVB’s Visitor Information Centers received more than 242,000 visitors in 2007. Community volunteers contributed more than 9,300 volunteer hours staffing the facilities and informing travelers about adventure possibilities in Southcentral Alaska. Last year 91 new members joined ACVB, bringing the total membership to 1, 175, a retention rate of more than 90 percent.
The 2008 nationwide travel forecast indicates a modest 5.2% increase in domestic and international travel according to the Travel Industry Association of America. Domestically, 45.8 percent of Americans say they will travel in the first six months of the year, down slightly from the 46.4 percent of 2007.
However, where and how Americans are traveling is of great importance to Alaska.
JWT, the largest ad agency in the U.S., lists "climate sightseeing" as a top travel trend for 2008, They predict that more Americans will take trips to see phenomena threatened by climate change, like glaciers in Anchorage, or the polar bears of the North Slope. Lonely Planet, the guidebook publisher, picked the U.S. as its No. 1 destination for 2008. Reasons sited were the weak dollar, the strength of the Euro and Americans staying closer to home. States boasting National Parks are also poised to receive more travelers this year.
With these trends in mind, ACVB outlined its 2008 goals, which include: booking $ 90 million in meetings and conventions; maximizing attendance for meetings booked in 2008 and 2009; increasing Web-based training for travel trade, developing niche markets; generating advertising equivalence of $ 8 million in national print; television and electronic editorial; securing 575,000 visitors to Anchorage.net; educating more than 3,000 travel trade professionals about Anchorage’s Big Wild Life™; and increasing online membership marketing tools by 10 percent.
“By taking advantage of new and exciting technologies, providing more programs to our membership, highlighting the expanded Convention District to meeting planners and showcasing the plethora of Anchorage area activities to travel trade professionals, ACVB will move boldly into this new year,” says Saupe. “We believe we have a solid roadmap in place for 2008 to increase tourism and meetings for the city.”
The Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau’s mission is to attract and serve visitors to the Municipality of Anchorage. ACVB’s marketing functions are funded by one-third of the bed tax collected by the lodging association. One-third goes to the Municipality’s general fund and one-third goes to the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center construction project. ACVB receives no state or federal funds. For more information, explore www.Anchorage.net
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Media Contacts:
Shelly Wozniak
Public Relations Manager
Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau
swozinak@anchorage.net
(907) 257-2331 direct
(907) 250-5285 cell
(907) 222-3752 fax
Nance Larsen, APR
Vice President, Communications & Marketing Programs
Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau
pr@anchorage.net
(907) 276-4118
Explore www.Anchorage.net
