The hotel that has served for nearly three decades as the Anchorage-based headquarters for the world’s most famous sled dog race will end its association with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race next year.
The Lakefront Anchorage Hotel will still be race headquarters for this year’s race and then step away, hotel manager John Bruce and Iditarod Trail Committee Chief Operations Officer Chas St. George told the Anchorage Daily News.
The hotel’s owners, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, announced the change in a statement Wednesday, a day before the race’s biggest critic, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was expected to protest at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago to denounce the company’s support of the Iditarod.
PETA held a protest outside the Anchorage hotel last year.
Bruce said pressure from PETA was not part of the hotel’s decision to end its association with the Iditarod. Instead, he said the pandemic has been costly to the hotel.
Hotel guests who would normally attend the race didn’t travel during the pandemic and didn’t offset the cost of the hotel’s discounts to support race events.
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