Wrangell is trading in the stormy skies of Seattle and heading east, hoping for favorable tourism trade winds in Chicago.
For the first time in two decades the borough will not send any representatives to the Seattle Boat Show. Instead, the Economic Development Department has elected to attend the Travel and Adventure Show in Chicago.
The two-day event kicks off on Feb. 1 of next year. Economic Development Director Kate Thomas said she expects an audience as large as 19,000 travel enthusiasts and an additional 2,000 to 3,000 attendees who work in the travel industry.
The switch is the borough’s most recent attempt to attract more of a different type of traveler to town. Thomas and Matt Henson, the borough’s marketing and community development coordinator, want to make Wrangell a premier destination for all sorts of travelers — not just the ones stepping off a cruise ship.
This “new era of tourism,” as Borough Manager Mason Villarma referred to it, is in line with the chamber of commerce’s goal to attract more independent travelers to Wrangell.
The community sees a few thousand independent travelers a year, a mere fraction compared to the cruise ship numbers. However, independent travelers tend to spend more money on food and accommodations compared to cruise ship visitors. They also tend to stay in town for longer periods of time.
“We are well aware people don’t get on the cruise ships because they want to seek out Wrangell,” Thomas said. She hopes the Chicago conference will inspire people to intentionally pinpoint Wrangell as a travel destination instead of only visiting because their cruise ship made port in town.
Thomas and Henson both believe the borough will benefit from the move to the Chicago show. The pair studied Wrangell’s tourism demographics and identified the Travel and Adventure Show as an ideal locale.
Thomas said Wrangell has a “secure demographic” of tourists older than 55, but now she wants to focus on affluent visitors between 35 and 55 years old. She believes the conference, scheduled for a convention center near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, will help target such individuals. Henson also noted that 35% of the conference’s attendees are expected to be a part of this target age demographic.
The demographic data also inspired the move away from the Seattle Boat Show, as many of the boat show’s attendees fit within Wrangell’s already-secured age demographic of 55 years and older.
Travel Wrangell is the borough’s destination marketing campaign. Henson monitors user activity on the Travel Wrangell social media platforms as well as on Travelwrangell.com. Notably, the city that is home to the fourth-most user interactions on such platforms is Chicago.
Additionally, Thomas mentioned that the Chicago show is a more affordable option for the borough than the Seattle Boat Show, as they will only need to pay for accommodations for two days. For context, the Seattle show is 10 days long.
However, the borough has not completely severed its ties to Seattle. Thomas said there is no contractual penalty for a one-year absence from the boat show. The borough also purchased full-page Travel Wrangell ads in Seattle-area markets of The New Yorker magazine and Conde Nasté Traveler. Those ads will run in November and December. Henson said most people book their summer travel during those months.
Thomas and Henson are constantly reevaluating what is best for the future of the borough’s tourism economy and will “closely monitor the impact and return on investment of this new venture,” Thomas said.
The switch from Seattle to Chicago comes after City Hall recently released a draft of the 2025 cruise ship schedule. Wrangell is expected to nearly double its number of cruise ship tourists from this year to next, possibly reaching 40,000 visitors next summer. It will also boast more than triple the number of port calls from ships with maximum capacities of over 1,000 visitors.
This, in addition to a new executive director of the chamber of commerce, reinforces the recent changes to Wrangell’s tourism blueprint.
“We are confident that this strategic shift will position our department for greater success in the coming years,” Thomas said.
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