2021 Annual Report

2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Letters from the MAYORS

After two years of challenging conditions, the Fairbanks tourism market is on target to fully recover and surpass pre-pandemic levels. These efforts are due to the outstanding efforts of the Explore Fairbanks team. Explore Fairbanks is recognized throughout the community and state as being champions for the visitor industry and the reasons are evident; innovative marketing strategies, creative programs, strategic partnerships and a strong vision are clearly communicated and acted upon to grow our community. Thank you Explore Fairbanks!

Bryce J. Ward, Mayor Fairbanks North Star Borough

The City of Fairbanks continues to be amazed at the great contributions to our community from Explore Fairbanks! While tourism all over the world took a hit the last few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the dedicated staff at Explore Fairbanks kept their drive up and didn’t miss a beat in preparing travelers to get back to our great City! One way they did this was through their incredible social media presence! The visitors are now back and we are so pleased to see them exploring our area again.

Explore Fairbanks is accomplishing their mission as an economic driver in Fairbanks and businesses in the local tourism industry are so grateful for their hard work. In addition to supporting the tourism industry, Explore Fairbanks has continually supported other areas of the Fairbanks community. Through the Newcomer Tours to welcome new military, “positive picketing” to support local health care workers, raising money for non-profits through the Visitor Industry Walk for Charity and other efforts, Explore Fairbanks has proven themselves to be a true community partner. I find I continue to feel blessed to work with Explore Fairbanks and I know that we have many, many more record-breaking tourism seasons ahead! Thank you, Explore Fairbanks!

Jim Matherly, Mayor City of Fairbanks

Explore Fairbanks has continued to do an excellent job of navigating and responding to the shifting travel marketplace over the last two years. Their work continuing to market to independent travelers as well as media, travel agents, tour operators and others has contributed significantly to record-setting hotel/motel tax collections in 2021. This resulted in North Pole exceeding $100,000 in bed tax revenue for the first time. The City of North Pole is proud to continue partnering with Explore Fairbanks in their efforts to attract visitors to our area.

Michael Welch, Mayor City of North Pole

Message from the Board CHAIR

After the enormous challenges the visitor industry experienced in 2020 (no Cross Gulf cruises, international travel bans and virtually no highway travel), 2021 brought the beginnings of recovery from an unexpected surge of domestic travelers, resulting in bed tax collections exceeding expectations, breaking monthly records, and a 26% increase in passenger capacity at Fairbanks International Airport.

In spite of the reduction in staff, the hard work, creativity and forward thinking of the Explore Fairbanks team kept the Fairbanks region in the game. The team persisted and were successful in pursuing every opportunity to garner the funding needed to accomplish their goals.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that after 22 years of excellence, leadership and dedication to Explore Fairbanks, to our partners and to our community, on May 31 we honored and said goodbye to Deb Hickok, our President and CEO. After an extensive hiring process that included community members, the board unanimously chose Scott McCrea as our new President and CEO. The transition was seamless as the goals and strategies of Explore Fairbanks continued without missing a beat. I was honored to serve as the Board Chair during this time of recovery and transition. I am forever grateful to the Explore Fairbanks staff, my fellow board members, amazing partners and community members for their enthusiasm, optimism and resilience in facing the challenges of the past year. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this excellent team!

Buzzy Chiu Premier Alaska Tours

2021 Board of DIRECTORS

Buzzy Chiu, Chair

Premier Alaska Tours

Kory Eberhardt, Chair Elect

A Taste of Alaska Lodge

Andy Anger, Past Chair

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Community & Technical College

Javier Villasenor-Gaona, Treasurer

Chena Hot Springs Resort

Ralf Dobrovolny, Secretary

1st Alaska Tours

Scott McCrea, President and CEO

Explore Fairbanks

Shalley Villamarin

Grande Denali Lodge

Greg Allison

Good, LLC

Adriel Butler

Aurora Expeditions

Danielle Hayes

HAP Alaska-Yukon

Erica Moeller

The Roaming Root Cellar

Reinhard Neuhauser

Alaska Fishing and Raft Adventures

Carly Nelson

Wedgewood Resort, Fountainhead Hotels

Doug Toelle

Running Reindeer Ranch

John Scherzer

Westmark Fairbanks Hotel & Conference Center

Jimi Cash, Ex Officio

Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly

Shoshana Kun, Ex Officio

Fairbanks City Council

The mission of Explore Fairbanks is to be an economic driver in the Fairbanks region by marketing to potential visitors and optimizing the visitor experience.

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

After enduring one of the most devastating years on record in the visitor industry in 2020, Explore Fairbanks approached 2021 with cautious optimism.

Implementing its COVID-19 Remarketing Plan and a goal of moving along the road to recovery, the organization was able to maintain Fairbanks and Interior Alaska’s presence in the marketplace as well as pursue and secure the necessary funding to execute marketing endeavors. Explore Fairbanks also assisted its business partners by providing leadership and helped to create an environment in which those businesses could recover through informing and educating on various business recovery funding sources.

The Fairbanks visitor industry performed remarkably well in 2021 given the circumstances and obstacles in place. There were no Cross Gulf of Alaska cruises for summer 2021 and highway traffic and international visitation were both minimal at best. However, the lack of those markets was made up with a surge of domestic independent leisure travelers, largely last minute in their travel and booking decisions. Contributing to those visitation numbers were an increase in air service with new carriers and destinations, as well as exceptionally low airfares.

Bed Tax Collections Exceed Expectations With Record Months for May, November and December

Even with a lack of highway travelers, international travel bans and suspension of Cross Gulf of Alaska cruises, 2021 bed tax collections from the Fairbanks North Star Borough, City of Fairbanks and City of North Pole exceeded expectations, thanks to a tremendous surge of domestic independent travelers. While we fell $500,000 short of our record high of 2019, we did surpass 2016 which was the first year that we exceeded 5 million dollars. The winter season months of January through April and October through December of 2021 exceeded our prior record high in 2019 by 3%. We also saw record highs in the months of May, November and December. The City of North Pole also broke records exceeding the $100,000 mark for the first time and a 35% increase from their prior annual high.

HOTEL/MOTEL TAX RECEIPTS BY SEASON

Fairbanks International Airport Sees Record Capacity for Summer Season

Explore Fairbanks worked closely with the Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) to develop air service and better serve visitors. In summer 2021, FAI increased its overall passenger capacity from 2019 by 26% with new carriers to include American Airlines with flights from Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago and Sun Country with weekly flights from Minneapolis. Delta Air Lines added a new direct service to Salt Lake City.

COVID-Safe Travel Grant Assists in Remarketing Efforts

In June, Explore Fairbanks was awarded $348,640 from the COVID-Safe Travel Grant Program through the State of Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. The purpose of the grant was to create marketing campaigns promoting Alaska as a COVID-safe travel destination for the summer of 2021. This grant allowed Explore Fairbanks to greatly expand current campaigns as well as add new programs through the summer months.

Throughout the course of the two-and-a-half-month campaign, Explore Fairbanks was able to generate a total of 15,697,068 digital impressions, 6,878 radio and television spots and 37,042 visits to the explorefairbanks.com website that would not have been generated without the funds from this grant.

National Media Shines the Spotlight on Fairbanks

Throughout 2021, Fairbanks benefited from a variety of online and print national media outlets highlighting our destination. Some of the more notable ones include two different stories—one on distilleries and one on dog mushing—that appeared in the year-end double issue of Travel + Leisure magazine. Other media outlets that showed Fairbanks love included National Geographic, Good Housekeeping, Conde Nast Traveler, Men’s Journal, Fodors Travel, Roadtrippers, Discovery.com and Outside magazine.

Pivoting to Virtual to Provide Outreach to Travel Trade

With the absence of in-person trade shows and sales missions, the Tourism Department greatly enhanced its virtual presence that it implemented in 2020. In addition to the continuation of the Fairbanks Aurora & Midnight Sun (FAMS) destination training and supplemental webinars, the department added market-specific webinars with various Alaska visitor industry colleagues and international webinars conducted by our European representative Elke Brosin. Additionally, the department participated in a number of virtual trade shows and consumer shows, aimed at both domestic and international audiences.

Land Acknowledgement Pays Respect to Alaska

Natives

Working with Denakkanaaga, Explore Fairbanks created a Dena Athabascan land acknowledgement to incorporate into publications, the website, local meetings and more.

We respectfully acknowledge the Dena people on whose traditional lands we reside. We honor the Dena who have been the stewards of Interior lands and waters for centuries, the Elders who lived here before, the Dena people of today, and future generations to come. We also recognize that Alaska Native people would traditionally gather here and harvest Native foods.

Industry Partners Recognized at Annual Banquet

The Explore Fairbanks Annual Banquet in April was our return to in-person events with a hybrid in-person/online event at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel & Conference Center.

• The Golden Heart Award was presented to Karen and Buddy Lane.

• The Aurora Award was presented to Colonel Christopher J. Ruga and Danny Wallace, U.S. Army Garrison Alaska Fort Wainwright.

• The Jim and Mary Binkley Award was presented to Aurora Bear.

• The Raven Award was presented to Condor Airlines.

• Inducted into the Tourism Hall of Fame were: – Vivian & Bill Bubbel, proprietors of Pump House Restaurant and Saloon

– Deb Hickok, then President and CEO of Explore Fairbanks

• Staff recognition:

– Amy Geiger for 10 years of service

– Ed Malen for 10 years of service

– Charity Gadapee for 20 years of service

CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITY

In a partnership with the U.S. Army Garrison Alaska Fort Wainwright, UAF and Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, Explore Fairbanks continued the Fort Wainwright Newcomers City Tour which helps orient new soldiers to the Fairbanks community. Staff from both the chamber and Explore Fairbanks provided step-on guides to narrate the tour. Over 1,200 soldiers took part in the tour in 2021—a 117% increase over 2020.

The Visitor Industry Walk for Charity was held as a socially distanced, self-guided historical walking tour along the riverfront from Pioneer Park to downtown. Strolling along the waterfront, 131 participants raised $5,000 for 36 local non-profits. To maximize resources, Explore Fairbanks hosted the Tourism Works for Fairbanks Job Fair at the same location on the same day with 15 partners participating.

In conjunction with the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, Explore Fairbanks hosted a “Positive Picketing” rally in October to support health care workers at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

MARKETING & OUTREACH by the numbers

TOURISM & MEETING SALES

Conducted 19 travel trade online trainings with 2,261 participants. Hosted 15 international and domestic familiarization tours (FAMs) attended by 24 travel trade representatives. Explore Fairbanks partners provided $28,686 of in-kind support toward the FAMs. Participated in 3 in-person travel trade shows and 6 virtual travel trade and consumer shows, resulting in appointments, contacts and exposure with more than 900 tour operators and travel agents.

MEDIA RELATIONS

Hosted 21 media tours with 35 participants. Issued 15 press releases to 40,663 media contacts. Answered 420 media inquiries requesting photos, regional information, fact checking, potential filming questions and more.

VISITOR SERVICES

Welcomed 59,828 guests to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center—an increase of 67% over 2020—and answered 2,946 calls from prospective visitors—up 52%.

GOLDEN HEART GREETERS

17 Golden Heart Greeters donated 131 hours of service, assisting with conferences, community events and personal greets.

SOCIAL MEDIA

385,361 followers — up 26%

6,935 followers — up 3%

31,629 followers — up 32%

Explore Fairbanks 2021 TEAM

Deb Hickok (through May)

Scott McCrea

President and CEO

Dawn Murphy

Director of Finance and Administration

Alanna McBrayer (through July)

Francine Zannou

Executive and Finance Coordinator

Amy Geiger

Director of Communications

Kasey Gillam

Assistant Director of Communications

Jerry Evans

Public Relations Manager

Bill Wright (through June)

Amalia Phillips

Internet Marketing Specialist

Angie Cerny

Branding and Production Coordinator

Scott McCrea (through June)

Bill Wright

Director of Tourism and Meeting Sales

Ed Malen

Tourism Senior Sales Manager

Leslie Young

Meetings & Convention Sales and Services Manager

Charity Gadapee

Director of Visitor Services and Partnership Development

Alanna McBrayer

Manager of Visitor Services and Partnership Development

Bob Eley

Kai Doak

Julia Parzick

Visitor Information Specialists

Susan McMahon

WEBSITE

2,167,918 total page views — up 76% 882,482 new visitors — up 80% 166,968 returning visitors — up 84%

Leo & Colleen Zeek

Visitor Information Volunteers

17 Year-round Golden Heart Greeter Volunteers

Elke Brosin

European Contractor

East West Marketing China Contractor