Homer, the little town at the “End of The Road,” is becoming an increasingly popular travel destination.
(Photo courtesy of the Homer Chamber of Commerce)
Jan Knutson is the Visitor Center Coordinator with the Homer Chamber of Commerce. She said that 2016 has been a record-breaking year for the Homer tourism industry.
“It has been a banner year for Homer and the surrounding area in terms of the number of the visitors. This year we had over 12,600 visitors,” Knutson said.
The visitor center welcomed 219 tourists on July 21 alone, breaking the record for number of daily visitors. In comparison, the average number of visitors per day was 94 in 2015.
Increases in the number of visitors have translated into higher revenues for a number of Homer businesses. Homer city campgrounds, for instance, reported a revenue increase of $5000 in comparison to August 2015.
Knutson said that local bed and breakfasts have also seen increases in occupancy.
“With several of the B&Bs last year, they had 60 percent occupancy, this year it’s 92 percent. They’re all booming,” Knutson said.
Besides the increase in the number of visitors, the Chamber of Commerce has seen a number of other changes, Knutson said.
“The trends that we see that are new this year, one is more and more motorcyclists are coming in. The other trend I’m seeing is more and more people, depending on what their budget is, are coming to camp because their budget may be limited, but they really want to come to Homer,” Knutson said.
The Homer Chamber of Commerce is open Monday through Friday 9 am – 5 pm throughout the year. It will also be open on Saturdays from 10 – 3 pm through the end of September.
Shahla Farzan is a reporter with KBBI - Homer.
Shahla first caught the radio bug as a world music host for WMHC, the oldest college radio station operated exclusively by women. Before coming to KBBI, she worked at Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and as a science writer for the California Environmental Legacy Project. She is currently completing her Ph.D in ecology at the University of California-Davis, where she studies native bees.
When she's not producing audio stories, you can find Shahla beachcombing or buried in a good book.
