Funding to the Alaskan department that handles state tourism marketing was reduced by 46% in the last legislative budget cycle but the affects of those cuts will not be felt until 2017.
Tourism Marketing Manager Kathy Dunn with the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development says the state expects over 2 million visitors in 2016 but the budget for the following year is uncertain.
Dunn: “That’s sort of our first mark is what does the governor put into his budget and then how does it play out with the legislature. I am optimistic, I’m hoping that because we had such a big budget cut that we can hang on to where we are currently at that $9.6 million [in funding].”
The future of Alaska’s tourism marketing is also being impacted by current events across the globe, affecting currency exchanges and security issues.
Dunn: “Like if the U.S. dollar is strong and the European euro is weak, you’re going to see less Europeans traveling because basically means that Alaska and the U.S. is too expensive. The other thing is anytime there is any sort of terrorism, we saw this in 9/11, where there is a huge downturn. People sort of hunker down, they stayed closer to home, they weren’t willing to go as far.”
Dunn says the department believes vacations to Alaska for 2016 will likely not be impacted and these delayed affects will not be noticed until 2017.