The most important thing you need to know about tourism in Haines is that the town markets itself independently.
We pay 1 percent of sales tax toward a program we direct to bring the kinds and numbers of visitors we want.
Want more Canadian visitors? We can advertise in Whitehorse newspapers. Want more cruise ships? We can send a delegation to meet with cruise executives in Miami. Want more RVers? We can attend RV trade shows and advertise in RV publications.
Want fewer of any group? We can direct our marketing away from any group of customers.
Many years ago, Haines residents said they “didn’t want to become another Skagway.” So that’s what we developed, a mix of amenities and attractions and tours that provide for a healthy, diverse tour industry that we control.
For the most part, it works. In any given year, the tourism promotion program returns to Haines exponentially more than it costs. The industry is subsidized by government, surely, but so are Alaska’s commercial fishing and oil industries. A subsidy that helps provide a sustainable, local economy is not evil or ill-spent.
If the 1 percent tax and publicly funded tourism promotion went away, what would happen?
Several things, most of them unfortunate, including:
- With less money available to advertise the town, Haines would attract fewer independent visitors, like RVers, Canadians down from Whitehorse for the weekend and travelers who come long distances for events like the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival. This loss would be felt most directly by local, independent businesses like Ampersand Alaska, Haines Hitch-Up RV park, and local supermarkets, businesses that rely on longer-term visitors, NOT cruise ship passengers. Businesses would lose money and the town would lose sales tax revenues.
- Special events like the Southeast Alaska State Fair, beer festival and coho derby would likely shrink, hurting our local non-profits. For example, were you aware that the beer festival generates more than $20,000 each year for our state fair? A full-time tourism director with funding for promotion keeps Haines on the radar of regional travelers, some of whom visit our town several times per year.
- Our town would become increasingly dependent on large cruise ships for visitors, resulting in increased political muscle for cruise companies and operators of cruise ship shore excursions. Shore excursions get their customers from contracts with cruise ships, not from advertising of Haines. Tour operator Sean Gaffney tipped his hand on this issue last winter, saying that he wouldn’t mind if the 1 percent tax were abolished. The 1 percent tax and tourism director position build a tour industry that we want and can live with.
Why can’t the tour industry raise its own marketing and promotion money?
It could, but the amount would never match what the 1 percent brings in, so visitation and sales tax income both would decline, with the resulting burden falling to local taxpayers. Currently, 1 percent of sales tax raises $628,000 per year. In the coming year, about $90,000 will go to the Haines Economic Development Foundation, and $353,000 will go to the tourism department, of which $200,000 will go to wages and benefits. After paying bills for upkeep of the visitor’s center, only $72,000 is left for advertising our town annually.
If you check advertising rates, you learn $72,000 doesn’t go very far. Haines is off the beaten track for most visitors, so getting them to route their trips through our town takes some convincing. That’s why, for many years, tourism directors secured the back page of the Alaska Milepost guide. Few people find their way to our town without some advance information and a nudge.
When will we be able to stop paying for tourism promotion?
A truism of tourism is that unless your town is at the Jersey shore, a vacation destination a few hours’ drive from cities full of millions of people, attracting visitors requires constant reminding, in the form of advertising. Believe in it or not, advertising works. It’s the reason people drink Budweiser beer and eat Wonder Bread.
Finally, in terms of marketing our town, we are almost all we have. Cruise ship shore excursion operators needn’t advertise. The State of Alaska at one time spent $15 million per year on general promotion – including TV ads in the Lower 48 showing visitors traveling by state ferry and RV – but the Alaska Legislature eliminated that funding years ago.
Our tourism promotion program is what we have that keeps the small stores and businesses in our community earning enough to stay open and serve us year-round. It’s also our town’s independent way of attracting independent visitors.
Those values are worth preserving.