Alaska companies brace for another slow year for tourism

Alaska tour company hopes for rebound in Chinese tourism

2019 was a record year for Chinese and mandarin-language tourists in Alaska, with roughly 10-thousand travelers coming to the state, according to industry estimates. But almost no Chinese visitors arrived in 2020. Alaska Public Media’s Jeff Chen spoke with an Anchorage-based tour company that caters to mandarin-speaking travelers in Alaska to see how they’ve managed to hang on.

An iconic Ketchikan art shop tries email marketing for the first time

Some businesses figured out ways to pivot to other ways of making money during this last year of little to no tourism. Let’s hear from one in southeast Alaska. While some Ketchikan businesses are left treading water until cruise tourists return, others are using the time to refocus and diversify. As Eric Stone reports from member station KRBD, that includes looking online to fill the gap.

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