The bylaw change codifies the need for Indigenous voices in overall destination management.
The Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA), the destination marketing organization for the State of Alaska, has taken steps to ensure that its board of directors will reserve one seat for a member who is Alaska Native in perpetuity. The 24 members of the ATIA board of directors passed the decision via a unanimous vote.
“There has been an amazing transformation of tribal inclusion and involvement marketing Alaska Native people thanks to the development of the Cultural Enrichment Committee and the members who supported the designated tribal seat on the Alaska Travel Industry Association board of directors,” said Camille Ferguson.
Ferguson, who is Tlingit, is an ATIA board member, chair of ATIA’s cultural enrichment committee and economic development director of Sitka Tribe of Alaska. “This designated position on the board is a true sign that ATIA is serious about its efforts to add diversity and inclusion when informing and promoting Alaska. We look forward to more interest from our tribal travel and tourism leaders to be involved.”
The new bylaws language requires one of the 24 seats on the ATIA Board of Directors be reserved for a director who is a member of a federally recognized tribe in Alaska, or who is a shareholder of an Alaska Native Corporation. There are currently three directors on the ATIA board who meet these criteria, but the bylaw change will ensure that as directors rotate through their three-year terms that there will always be Indigenous representation.
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Some 20% of Alaska’s population is Indigenous, and Alaska Native voices, arts, and cultural traditions are growing in Alaska’s tourism landscape, owing largely in part to the increase in Alaska Native advocacy in the state’s tourism industry. Discriminatory laws against Alaska natives were in effect in Alaska until 1945; Alaska Natives were also not entitled to vote or send their children to public schools unless they abstained from their historic cultural customs—including wearing traditional clothing, eating traditional foods, practicing Indigenous religious beliefs, or speaking native languages.
“We’ve had conversations for some time about creating a tribally designated seat,” said Jillian Simpson, ATIA’s president and CEO. “The idea gained critical mass in the past year as our cultural marketing efforts increased and we collaborated with Indigenous content producers for recent campaigns. I am thrilled to lead the organization into this new era of partnership with the Alaska Native community.”
ATIA has focused intently on including Indigenous voices and topics in the state’s marketing materials, Simpson said. “In the past two years ATIA has increased its already present cultural tourism marketing to include an Alaska Native Culture guide that’s included with the Travel Alaska travel planner and has worked with Indigenous Ambassadors and content gatherers to increase the prominence of cultural tourism across all marketing channels.”
Awareness surrounding Indigenous Tourism has increased in many parts of North America, particularly since the U.S. Congress passed the Native American Tourism & Improving Visitor Experience (NATIVE) Act in 2016. The bill, which was co-sponsored by Alaska’s entire congressional delegation in the House and Senate, directs increased cooperation between the federal government and tribal entities to expand Indigenous tourism in the United States.
The ATIA bylaw change is significant because it codifies the need for Indigenous voices in overall destination management and marketing activities writ large, rather than in separate, specialized organizations that focus only on Indigenous tourism.
“This newly designated board seat on the Alaska Travel Industry Association board of directors ensures that there is always Indigenous representation. ATIA, its members and other entities are inviting travelers to visit the ancestral homelands of 229 federally and state recognized tribes, and we want to work together to ensure that every visitor to Alaska comes home with an energized appreciation for the cultural opportunities the state has to offer. The designated seat represents a shift we are not only seeing in Alaska, but across the nation in both leadership and governing bodies,” said Emily Keneggnarkayaaggaq Edenshaw, a Yup’ik and Iñupiaq ATIA Board member who is President and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center.
Alaska welcomed more than 2.4 million visitors in 2019, generating $4.5 billion in economic activity. Tourism is Alaska’s second-largest private sector source of jobs.