Tourism Task Force
Dear Editor: I submitted this letter to our Assembly prior to the Tuesday meeting.
Dear City of Sitka Assembly: Thank you for your service to our quaint, artistic and gorgeous little fishing community. This is what locals love about living here and tourists enjoy about visiting such a distinctive and refreshing place. Your willingness to consider what the people you represent actually think about broad-based issues such as the level of tourism Sitka is facing and city funding for tourism is very much appreciated.
In regards to creating a new Tourism Task force, unless you reconsider the proposed membership, much of what happens after they meet would seem to be a foregone conclusion, the status quo. The current proposed member listing includes mostly entities that benefit from MORE tourism: business, downtown business corridor, Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal, Sitka Tribe of Alaska and tours and attractions. That is five of nine members! Unclear how the Port and Harbors Commission is impacted by tourism, or how they will play into the balance of this task force, but the imbalance is currently leaning toward HIGH levels of tourism. The Sustainability Commission is one that might add a bit of restraint.
We don’t know who you might select for “at large,” so the balance might improve slightly, but certainly not enough to create a fifty-fifty balance, or any chance of representing local views. Add in that the Tourism Task Force will have ex-officio members from the Assembly, Visit Sitka, and other city staff, the Tourism Task force now adds three more voices (eight) that are focused on bringing more money into town and, therefore, likely to support MORE tourism. A graduate student tourism survey in 2022 found that “87-percent of respondents reported being impacted by tourism in 2022; 63-percent of respondents felt the uptick in tourism made Sitka a less desirable place to live.”
Would it be possible to add representatives from pertinent entities such as Sitka Conservation Society, the Police and Fire Commission, Daily Sitka Sentinel & Transition Sitka to balance out the slate of members; plus ensure that the two at-large members DO NOT represent any entity that benefits from increased tourism? It would be very helpful if the Task Force could be done similar to the collaborative process Sitka followed to determine what to do with our solid waste. That collaborative process ensured that all the various local stakeholders were invited to choose someone to represent them and included a facilitator to ensure that every voice was heard. After the stakeholder group was educated about all the solid waste issues, five options were selected and placed before the public in a city election, so the community voted on the plan at the end of the day.
Again, thank you for your time and energy serving on the Assembly! Your consideration of these ideas and concerns will be very much appreciated.
Klaudia Leccese, Sitka
