OIL SPILL STAINS STATE TOURISM FUTURE

by HAL BERNTON
Daily News reporter

ANCHORAGE- State tourism officials have asked that Exxon Co. USA fund a $14 million public relations campaign to quell what they describe as a wave of cancellations by would be Alaska visitors.

"To put it kind of bluntly, we have to stop the flow of blood . . ." said Dana Brockway, executive director of the Alaska Visitors Association, an industry group helping to organize the campaign.

The funding request is in response to an April 2 offer by Exxon to help finance a campaign to allay fears of potential visitors.

Brockway said neither the state nor the visitor's association has any money for the campaign.

A plan was delivered April 20 to Exxon with hope of immediate approval and of starting the ads May 1, said Bob Miller, executive director of the Alaska Tourism Marketing Council, a joint industrystate group. Since then, industry officials have contacted Exxon "two and three times a day urging that quick action be taken," Miller said.

"They say it's just being considered somewhere," Miller said.

Exxon officials could not be reached Thursday for comment.

The tourism season will be under way within a month. "We want to salvage as much as we can of the '89 season and lay the groundwork for not losing the '90 season," Miller said.

Tourism and state sport fishery officials blame the cancellations on the intense and prolonged national media coverage that the oil spill has generated. Informal industry surveys and phone calls from operators indicate cancellations from Ketchikan to Bristol Bay. Interior and Anchorage tour operators also report cancellations, said Miller.

Major cruise lines, which require deposits from customers, appear least affected by the oil spill, Miller said.

The big problem is small charter boat, lodges and sport fishing operations that normally get much of their bookings just before the summer season, Miller said.

"The cancellations are occurring at an accelerating rate within the last two weeks. It's almost as if people had been waiting to see what to do and now have all decided to cancel," Miller said.

"There's no doubt about it," said Norval Netsch, director of the state sport fish division. "We are getting a lot of calls from lodges or charter operators saying that they are indeed getting cancellations. Our Fairbanks office is even getting these calls."

Brockway said he's heard about hundreds of cancellations among the hundreds of thousands expected to visit Alaska this year. But he said his surveys were far from complete, and that another problem is a major slowdown in bookings at a time they should be picking up.

Brockway cited several specific examples of the oil spill's stain on tourism:

* A Southeast fishing lodge that normally books 25 to 30 people a week in late April has had bookings drop to 10 per week. The lodge, which he declined to identify, normally receives 40 calls a day, and now is receiving 15 calls, and half the callers ask about the oil's affect on Ketchikan's fishing. The spill area is hundreds of miles north of Ketchikan.

* A motor tourist intending to visit the state this summer returned his highway guide of Alaska to the marketing council. In his letter, he said "we'll have to go elsewhere to see unspoiled northern beauty."

* An Anchorage motorhome rental firm reported a customer who canceled a monthlong rental "due to the unexpected situation in Alaska with the oil."

To reassure travelers, a series of print, television and other media ads would stress that much of Alaska remains untouched by the spill, and that tourism still is possible in much of Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula areas affected by the oil.

The proposal was put together by the marketing council and approved by the governor, said James Wright, a council official.

But the money would flow through the visitors association, a private group that would not be bound by government regulations requiring bidding on all contracts.

The plan would give the work to Bradley Advertising Inc., the company that already holds a contract to assist the state tourism marketing program.

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