Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tourism Marketing Data topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Denali presenter: new vacation planner, community calendar and AI tools aim to boost marketing and data
Summary
Borough and chamber resources include a new vacation planner, a community events calendar synced across local institutions, and locally created GPT tools for social media and business continuity planning; the presenter also urged improved visitor data collection.
A Staff member, presenter for Denali Borough, said new marketing and data tools are being distributed to help local businesses and promote visitation.
The presenter said the borough's new vacation planners have arrived and that requests for printed copies have increased. "I do have a couple copies of the vacation planner in the borough office if you'd like to see 1 in person," the presenter said, and noted the planner is also available online.
The presenter highlighted a new chamber website feature: a community calendar that is synced with the school district, library and borough calendars. Any public calendar with events or board meetings can be linked for inclusion, the presenter said, and encouraged community groups to provide calendar links.
The presenter also said they have developed a set of custom GPT tools (created via ChatGPT's GPTs feature) to help local businesses with tasks such as yearlong social-media planning, an Alaska-compliance policy builder, and a business-interruption planning guide developed after the Riley fire to prepare for multi-failure events like wildfire, power loss and communications outages.
On data and tax reporting, the presenter said borough staff sent a document to Amber and Mayor Noel requesting additional visitor statistics via the overnight accommodation tax reporting system. The presenter cited a discrepancy: overnight accommodation tax revenue rose about 18 percent in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 despite an estimated drop of roughly 40,000 visitors linked to the Riley fire, noting that without the visitation drop revenues would have been near last year's levels.
Ending: The presenter asked businesses to use forthcoming surveys, including a business housing survey, and encouraged local calendar submissions to populate the community events calendar.
