News Release

VISITING SUMMER GROUPS KEEP ANCHORAGE TOURISM BUSINESS BRIGHT: Dena’ina Center and More Hotel Rooms Make Summer Convention Business Possible

Anchorage, Alaska – July 2, 2009 – The Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center’s 215,000 square feet of meeting space and 600 new hotel rooms are a benefit to this summer’s tourism business in Anchorage. Summer convention business such as the 700 Delta Sigma Theta sorority members meeting in Anchorage today through Sunday as well as the 1,300 national attendees of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Leadership Conference arriving July 13, 2009, help offset a national decline of individual travelers due to the down economy.

“Without the Dena’ina Center and additional hotel rooms, it would have been very difficult to book these conventions during Anchorage’s busy summer tourism season,” says Julie Dodds, director of convention sales for the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB). “We can now book larger room blocks in the downtown hotels and negotiate more competitive room rates than in years past.”

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Leadership Conference has an estimated economic impact of $1,308,807 for Anchorage. Sorority members will also devote a day to providing service to the city with the local Anchorage chapter.

“This is great convention business for the city. These attendees are educated, enjoy visiting interesting places and typically bring their families along. And they often extend their stay in Alaska to see more of the state and experience all that it has to offer,” adds Dodds.

The local chapter for Alpha Kappa Alpha was responsible for bringing the 74th Far Western Regional Meeting and more than 600 attendees to Anchorage in April of 2003. And it wasn’t until the sorority’s Western Regional Meeting in April 2008, that the president of Alpha Kappa Alpha selected Anchorage as the location for the 2009 Leadership Conference.

Thirty-year Anchorage resident Yolanda Mitchell Brown and her fellow members of the Alaska Alpha Kappa Alpha Chapter worked immediately with the ACVB to organize a site visit in May 2008, with national President Dr. Barbara McKinzie and National Meeting Planner Joann Brown to book and coordinate the Leadership Conference in Anchorage.

Mitchell Brown, Alaska Chapter President Rose Stokes, Margo Bellamy and Joy Green Armstrong were recognized as ACVB’s Meeting Champions of the Month in July 2008, for their work bringing the Alpha Kappa Alpha Leadership Conference to Anchorage.

Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1908, and is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American college-trained women. The small group of women who organized the Sorority was conscious of a privileged position as college-trained women of color, just one generation removed from slavery. They were resolute that their college experiences should be as meaningful and productive as possible. Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded to apply that determination.

As the Sorority grew, it kept in balance two important themes: the importance of the individual and the strength of an organization of women of ability and courage. Today, Alpha Kappa Alpha’s influence extends beyond campus quads and student interest and a legacy of service that deepens, rather than ends, with college graduation. Its program activities center on significant issues in families, communities, government halls and world assembly chambers.

Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau
The Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau’s (ACVB) mission is to attract and serve visitors to the Municipality of Anchorage as a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO). ACVB’s marketing functions are funded by one-third of the bed tax collected by lodging associations. One-third goes to the Municipality’s general fund, a contribution established in 1978, and one-third to service the bond debt and operations of the Anchorage Convention Centers. ACVB receives no state or federal funds. Explore www.Anchorage.net for more information.

Media Contacts:

Jeanette Anderson Moores
Public Relations
Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau
jmoores@anchorage.net
(907) 276-4118
Explore www.Anchorage.net

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