Daily Sitka Sentinel

Visitor Contract Topic At City Work Session

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Assembly will hold a one-hour work session prior to tonight’s regular meeting to discuss the proposal from Visit Sitka and the Sitka Chamber of Commerce for the city contract on convention and visitor promotion.
    The Chamber’s last three-year contract for visitor marketing and services expired June 30. Since then, the organization has operated on a month-to-month basis while negotiations with the city continued on the next three-year contract.
    The Assembly has set a budget of $300,000 per year for the next three-year contract, which started Jan. 1. The Assembly has said it would consider additional funding, based on the plan presented at tonight’s work session.
    Chamber Executive Director Rachel Roy said the proposed contract will cover the next phases of Visit Sitka’s marketing plan for cruise ship visitors and promotion of Sitka for meeting, conference and convention visitors, as well as independent travelers.
    “We’re really keying into the things that work in attracting visitors to what Sitka has that really shine,” Roy said today.
    Visit Sitka, which is part of the Chamber, has been focused on increasing digital marketing and exposure, including through the organization’s Instagram channel: #visitsitka
    “That’s really been a focus this last year,” Roy said.
    Visit Sitka is also taking aim at attracting more conventions and meetings, particularly from Alaska and the Western U.S., focusing on groups that can afford the transportation and lodging costs here.
    “The Alaska market is attractive for Sitka,” she said. “Many Alaska professionals want to visit Sitka.”
    In addition to the $300,000, the Chamber plans to ask for $166,000 in additional funding for this calendar year to carry out its marketing plans. Funding comes from the city’s bed tax, which goes into the Visitor Enhancement Fund.
    The work session starts at 5 p.m. in Harrigan Centennial Hall. The Assembly’s regular meeting will start at 6 p.m., but no action is planned on the visitor services contract, which will be taken up at a later meeting.
Other Business
    The regular meeting agenda includes a proposal to take $50,000 from the Visitor Enhancement Fund for a security camera system to monitor areas outside the Centennial Hall office, and for additional staffing to help cover services for visitors this summer. Under the new Visit Sitka contract, Centennial Hall staff is expected to cover the visitor information services there.
    “We have a larger number of events, a bigger building and the same size staff,” Centennial Hall Manager Don Kluting today.
    He noted the old Centennial Hall had 1,500 meetings and events in its busiest year, compared to 1,700 last year in the newly renovated and expanded building.
    Also tonight, hospital consultant Sarah Cave and outside attorney Sandy Johnson will update the Assembly on the negotiations process for the SEARHC-Sitka Community Hospital affiliation, with a possible executive session at the end of the meeting.
    Other items on the agenda are related to fiscal policy, and a recommendation by the Sitka Permanent Fund advisory committee to amend the investment policy to prohibit loans as authorized investments.
    The Assembly will also be asked to approve a $25,000 grant application to the state historical preservation fund for work on Fraser Hall on the SJ campus, a National Historic Landmark. The Sitka Fine Arts Camp has pledged an in-kind contribution of $16,667 for the project.
    A number of appointments to commissions and boards, and liquor license renewals, also are on the agenda. The Assembly will review the priority list it will submit to the Legislature for state funding.