KETCHIKAN GATEWAY BOROUGH UNVEILS A NEW TOURISM STRATEGY

The New Ketchikan Tourism Strategy is Designed to Balance Resident Quality of Life with the Visitor Experience

Ketchikan Gateway Borough (KGB) initiated a planning process just over a year ago that brought together about 1,600 residents, businesses, non-governmental organizations, public sector, and community leaders across all local jurisdictions to develop a community vision and strategies to stay ahead of uncontrolled tourism.

The Ketchikan Tourism Strategy (KTS) is the result of this dynamic community participatory planning process and is intended to be a working document that evolves over time to meet the changing needs of the community as it balances resident quality of life and the visitor experience., while also proactively addressing the growing challenges and opportunities of Ketchikan's thriving tourism industry.

“While tourism growth has brought many economic benefits, it is putting a strain on the community, its infrastructure, and natural resources. The destination is now facing a range of interrelated challenges: over-reliance on cruise tourism, traffic congestion, and aging infrastructure, persistent workforce shortages, and limited workforce housing,” says Richard Harney, director of Planning & Community Development, KGB. “The implementation of the KTS will take us all. The KTS aligns with many other initiatives happening in our community to develop resources and maximize outcomes more holistically.”

To help ensure that this work continues to reflect our changing community, a Destination Stewardship Council is being formed to guide implementation and identify how this work can be supported through more permanent oversight and governance. The interests of residents, private businesses, Native organizations, non-profits, and governmental agencies will continually be consulted equally in this process.

We invite you to review the KTS and stay engaged for continued updates to the tourism plan as implementation gets underway.