The Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce has long operated Visit Sitka – most recently for around $600,000 a year. (KCAW Photo)
The Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce will continue to operate Visit Sitka through the end of the calendar year while the city searches for a permanent replacement. Despite requesting proposals months ago, the city has not yet secured a long-term operator for its visitor services program.
The Chamber has long operated Visit Sitka – most recently for around $600,000 a year. But last year, the assembly revised the contract terms to update the program’s strategy and mission. The chamber did not bid for the new contract, and last month, the lone candidate pulled out of the running.
“Since we were unsuccessful in doing that, we’re just kind of working together on what a solution can look like in the meantime, that gets us through the visitor season, creates at least a little bit of a bridge for a new operator, and helps to smooth that transition,” said Planning and Community Development Director Amy Ainslie, who spoke at Tuesday’s (7-8-25) Sitka Assembly meeting.
At the meeting, the assembly voted 4-2 in favor of a temporary contract with the Chamber. It greenlit a $285,000 appropriation from the visitor enhancement fund to contract with the Chamber through December.
As part of the contract, the Chamber will continue to maintain the Visitor Center to address requests and questions from the public, design the 2026 Visitor Guide, manage Visit Sitka social media, and print and stock visitor information, maps, and guides, among other services.
Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz and assembly member Scott Saline opposed the contract. Eisenbeisz said a sticking point for him was the contract cost, given that Sitka is already mostly through the visitor season.
“I’m not 100% sure that this is in the best interest right now,” he said.
Assembly member Chris Ystad, who voted yes on the appropriation, said he was concerned that if the city didn’t move forward with the contract, visitor services duties would fall on the shoulders of city staff.
“Something that concerns me is if we no longer have someone running Visit Sitka, this is going to fall on staff to some degree,” Ystad said. “And I know that a lot of our staff is already pretty highly taxed as it is.”
Assembly member Kevin Mosher agreed. He added that while he thinks Sitka could survive without visitor services for the foreseeable future, contracting with the Chamber would allow for a smooth transition.
“Tourism is a massive part of this community’s economy. It’s huge,” Mosher said. “And now that we have a lot of money, or a very good, bustling tourism economy, I don’t want to just let this go. I know we could survive without it. I get it. You guys are right. We could survive without it, but we have a contractor, regardless of your feelings, that’s willing to help us for a couple months.”
After voting in favor of the temporary contract, the assembly discussed plans for finding a future long-term contractor for Visit Sitka, with the goal of starting one by January of next year.
At the end of the assembly meeting, Holly Meyer, who leads the Chamber’s board of directors, addressed assembly members’ questions about why the Chamber, now, after saying ‘no’ twice before, decided to say ‘yes’ to the temporary contract with the city.
“It’s because having Visit Sitka go dark is a disservice to our business community, and that is a direct disservice to our members,” she said. “The reason that we did not put an RFP in and we decided to say ‘no’, [is because] we had run the length of our contract. We built Visit Sitka up to what it is today. We’ve done it for 10 years. It’s a beautiful product that we’re going to give to somebody, but we’re done. We’re ready to be done, and the discussion tonight shows us that we’ve made the right choice in being done.”
