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Econ 919 - Marketing the Kenai Peninsula

 

A lot of planning goes into drawing visitors to the Kenai. This week, we dive into some of the challenges and opportunities for marketing the peninsula across the country.

First, a quick personal story. The last time I was visiting back home in Iowa, I spent a lazy morning with my parents watching The Price is Right. The last game of the hour, the Showcase Showdown, always offers some kind of amazing prize- a new car, a new kitchen, the trip of a lifetime to someplace exotic. But I was surprised when I saw the screenshot of that week’s prized destination - Summit Lake Lodge on the Kenai Peninsula, a place we've all driven by countless times. And I was just as surprised to learn that national television exposure like that, aside from all the reality shows of course, isn’t that common.

“Commercials are great. Commercials cost money. We have no commercials. Not just Kenai. The state of Alaska," says Summer Lazenby, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Tourism and Marketing Council. I caught up with her after a recent presentation to a meeting of the Kenai and Soldotna Chambers of Commerce.

“The Kenai has things to offer that you simply cannot get anywhere else. And there are videographers in town who are capable of filming one of those high quality, really effective commercials. The catch is getting it into the markets where we want the people to come from. As it stands now, that’s just not something that’s affordable.”

But, what are those markets? Who is being targeted as a potential visitor and why? Well, if the point is to get folks here to spend a little money, that’s a good place to start. Who has disposable income and time? Hint, it’s generally not the younger crowd.

“From a broad base, yeah, when people are in their early 20’s, they’re still earning their disposable income. But there are also segments of that same population that have a lot of money. And it would be great if I were able to waltz into Silicon Valley and say ‘hey, computer people, I can tell you how to spend your money. Come to the Kenai, we have all sorts of amazing things to do.’ Again, we run into that budget issue.”

And that makes for an interesting challenge. Because a lot of the newer opportunities in tourism geared toward younger people, biking, backcountry escapes, paddleboarding along glaciers, can be done for relatively little cost. Camping is cheap. Despite those and other budgetary challenges, though, a reportKPTMC commissioned from the McDowell Group shows an industry that does better here than other parts of the state that invest more in self-promotion. Lazenby points to the Mat-Su valley as an example. In a year, the Mat-Su won’t see as many visitors as the Kenai does between May and September.

“Their direct spending (from tourism) was $98 million versus our $187 million. Direct jobs, 1,350 versus 2,500. Indirect, 300 jobs versus 600 jobs. Total labor income, $47 million versus our $95 million.... Tourism is a major player on the economics of the Kenai Peninsula.”

And funding those efforts will be, once again, a major point of debate as the borough assembly takes on the budget in the coming weeks. Last year, the borough provided $306,000 to KPTMC.

 

 

This week’s number: 12.

 

As in cents. That’s about how much the price of a gallon of gas has gone up in the past week, settling around $3.15 across the central peninsula. The summer fuel season begins in April, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Summer fuel blends differ from the winter stuff in how quickly they evaporate. Fuel needs to evaporate more slowly as temperatures go up. Slightly higher crude oil prices are driving most of that cost increase. EIA saysto expect an average price of around $2.75 this summer, plus an extra 60 or 70 cents to us Alaskans, but that peak is anticipated to hold steady before coming down again in the fall.

 

But there’s a little bonus. The EPA saysthose summer blend fuels are a bit more efficient, increasing mileage.