The long days of summer are also some of the biggest for visitation. June 2024 saw modest increases to airport volume, and improvement across several other indicators.
Hotel Performance Improves Month over Month
Hotel revenue increased compared to June 2023, mainly on the strong average daily rate. Demand for Anchorage hotel rooms was flat compared to the year prior, but the higher rate pushed revenue for June to $59.3 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $190.1 million, an increase of 3.9% from the same time last year. Hotel revenue is one metric to measure the strength of visitation. At the same time, it provides an early look at how bed tax collections are shaping up. Hotel bed taxes go to the municipal general fund, as well as maintenance and operations of the convention centers and tourism marketing and promotions efforts.
Conventions Sold Increases, Nearing Annual Goal
2024 is approaching the midpoint, but Visit Anchorage is already closing in on a big annual goal. Conventions sold are up 34% year to date, totaling more than $104 million in estimated economic impact. The measure tracks the success of the sales team in booking meetings this year that will come to Anchorage in the years ahead. The economic impact number is based on a national model for convention and meeting delegate spending in the community, and is a conservative estimate of what Anchorage is likely to gain as a result of direct spending during an event held in the community.
Meetings and conventions are one of the many ways the community draws outside visitation year-round.
Advertising and Promotions in Full Stride
The second quarter of the year also saw Visit Anchorage's advertising campaigns in peak performance. Through June, Anchorage had more than 140,000,000 advertising impressions in digital and print outlets.
Anchorage.net also saw more than 1.1 million sessions from April through June. While some web traffic is spurred by advertising, organic search also provides a healthy amount of website visitation as users line out their trip at home, and look for trip ideas while traveling Alaska.
