The Kenai Peninsula Tourism and Marketing Council will be back before the borough assembly next week seeking funding, but, in a different way than past years.
The organization underwent leadership and staffing changes earlier this year, after borough mayor Charlie Pierce vetoed $100,000 the assembly-approved spending.
KPTMC is instead up for a grant, totaling $150,000, to do essentially the same work it had been charged with in the past. The group’s new executive director, Dennis Meadows, wasn’t available for comment in time for this story, but earlier this year, we talked with the group’s board president, Pamela Parker, who talked about the new direction KPTMC is hoping to go. Part of the plan includes focusing on tourists who aren’t looking for the trip of a lifetime.
“If folks from Anchorage come down to the Peninsula, they are tourists in our area and their tax dollars are important to us. Just like when I go to Seward, I’m a tourist in Seward even though I’m still on the Peninsula, I choose to spend my money at those businesses. So I think reframing the idea of what a tourist is and that we’re still marketing not only to outsiders but also to Alaskans. We want them to come down here. Sixty-five percent of our tourists to the Peninsula are from Anchorage or the Valley. So that’s a huge piece of it, but we have to make sure that we’re including them. Those are tourists."
She says the group will shift some of its focus online, reaching potential visitors from Alaska and beyond through social media and other advertising tools.
In years past, KPTMC has received as much as $300,000 in funding from the borough. And that may not be all the spending. The borough is in the process of analyzing bids for another marketing contract worth $75,000. The assembly will vote on the grant for KPTMC when it meets next Tuesday.