Spending Patterns of Selected Alaska Bear Viewers: Preliminary Results from a Survey

Abstract

The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage developed and conducted a Web-based survey of 219 traveling parties who went on a bear viewing excursion from the Homer area during the summer of 2004. All of the bear viewing excursions were taken with one business. The survey was developed in February 2005 and administered over the Web during the period 11 February through 2 March 2005. Respondents were contacted by individual email messages using email addresses that they had voluntarily provided at the time of their excursion. Most bear viewers (69%) in the sample come from lower-48 U.S. states. About 20% come from foreign countries. Only about 10% come from Alaska. About one-third of the respondents stated that bear viewing was the primary purpose of their trip to Alaska. People in the sample spent an average of about 17 days on their trips – far longer than the overall Alaska summer tourism average of about 10 days.