North American Travel Trade: Overview

The overall goal of the Domestic Travel Trade program is to generate agent and operator interest in the destination and offer education about Alaska as a destination. Creating interest among consumers is only one part of Alaska's tourism marketing program. Once consumers have made the decision to travel to Alaska, an outlet where they can purchase their travel should be made available. And since the vast majority of visitors to Alaska are from the U.S., domestic travel trade (travel agents and tour operators) is an important area for ATIA to target

From the standpoint of the travel trade, the program needs to identify, support and build alliances with travel agents and tour operators and offer them educational and informative tools that help them sell the State. Alaska is a big state with different modes of transportation, attractions and other travel choices. These myriad choices make Alaska more difficult to sell as a destination. The up side to the difficulty a novice agent or operator might have in selling Alaska is that when they actually experience Alaska, then they are more committed to selling the destination.