The City of Ketchikan announced a new tourism manager last week. Laurie Booyse will be stepping into the newly created role. She is the former director of Visit Sitka, the marketing organization for the city of Sitka.
Booyse also spent seven years as the sales & service manager for Allen Marine Tours in Ketchikan.
In a written statement, she says the city is at an exciting crossroads. She says she views her new role as a liaison between the community and the visitor industry. She says her goal is developing a plan to sustainably manage visitors and their relationship to the community.
Booyse’s hiring comes on the heels of a record high season for tourism. An estimated 1.5 million visitors came to Ketchikan this year. City officials say that work needs to be done on the city’s policies and infrastructure to handle that volume of visitors. They say the new tourism manager will collaborate with stakeholders and government agencies to find solutions.
Ketchikan’s City Council first proposed the creation of the tourism manager job following Juneau’s decision to hire its first tourism manager in 2021. The position will report to Ketchikan’s City Manager Delilah Walsh.
