The visitor industry provided more than $248 million in estimated economic impact to the city, ACVB spokeswoman Nance Larsen said in a written statement. The ACVB also surpassed its goals in every area, from convention sales to communications, membership and tourism development sales.

ACVB's convention sales team sold or booked 739 meetings with an estimated economic impact of more than $112 million. Four large national conventions chose Anchorage as a future meeting site in the new Dena'ina Center, including USA Canada Lions Leadership Forum, National Defense Transportation Association, National Association of Postmasters of the United States, and IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Conference.

Some 633 conventions were held in 2006, with an impact of more than $97.7 million. Among these were the Wildlife Society, Alaska Federation of Natives, National Indian Education Association and The American Association of Physics Teachers. The 26th annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games was among the large events the city hosted, bringing more than 600 athlete and 2,000 family members to Anchorage.

More than 1 million tourists explored Anchorage and surrounding areas for an economic impact of $151 million. The ACVB tourism development sales team provided training to more than 2,500 travel agents and tour operators on what Anchorage has to offer visitors. Educating travel trade is a critical component to increasing visitor numbers.

In 2006, Anchorage received top destination rankings. Orbitz Insider Index ranked the city ninth, as the perfect summer city getaway. VirtualTourist.com listed Anchorage as No. 9 in the VirtualTourist Up-and-Comers Index. Anchorage was voted No. 8 in a list of top 10 U.S. walking cities by “Prevention” magazine in a joint study with the American Podiatric Medical Association. “Field & Stream” magazine's 2006 list of America's top 20 best fishing cities rated Anchorage as 10th in the country.

For 2007, Anchorage came in at No. 6 as part of Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associations top 2007 domestic destinations, and second in the organization's list of top cruise destinations.

ACVB's communications department pulled in top awards for its marketing and public relations efforts. Anchorage.net was presented with a 2006 Web Award for outstanding achievement in Web site development from the Web Marketing Association. ACVB's “Flat Seymour” was honored with a Best Idea program outstanding achievement award by the Western Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus. ACVB's public relations and marketing programs received first place in five categories in the Public Relations Society of America's Alaska Chapter Aurora Awards program.

Traffic on Anchorage.net increased significantly in 2006, to more than 669,000 unique Web visitors per month, while the Visitor Information Centers saw 214,130 visitors who were assisted by volunteers who contributed more 9,811 hours. Last year 107 new members joined ACVB, bringing the total to 1,205 members.

ACVB 2007 goals include booking $90 million in meetings and conventions, maximizing attendance for meetings booked in 2007 and 2008, increasing Web-based training for travel trade, developing niche markets, generating advertising equivalence of $8.5 million in national print, television and electronic editorial, securing 925,000 visitors to Anchorage.net, retaining 90 percent of ACVB's members and increasing Visitor Information Center numbers by 8 percent.