"We are cutting rates," said Jay Ramras, of Pike's Waterfront Lodge, who described the tourism season so far as "a disaster."

Pike's summer specials, advertised on the company's Web site, include $109 for double occupancy for Fridays and other specific nights, and special rates for school or sports teams.

File Photos/Melissa Campbell/AJOC The University of Alaska Fairbanks museum houses a display of an oddly-decorated outhouse. Operators of tourism businesses in the Interior say they are worried about the upcoming summer, saying that the tourism season kickoff during Memorial Day weekend seemed to be much slower than normal. A number of businesses are offering deep discounts hoping to increase bookings.

Other hotels are offering rates as low as $89 a night, prices unheard of in the summer, when a good deal on a hotel room was often more than $200.

"It's the economy," said Ramras, an Alaska state senator whose hotel offers a number of amenities, ranging from free airport shuttles to spa facilities. "It's expensive to travel here, and the cruise ships are attracting frugal guests, less likely to buy land tours."

Still, Ramras said he is optimistic and thinks the Alaska tourism market will rebound when the economy does. Right now, "we think you are a winner in this market if you are down 20 percent," he said May 25 on the tail end of the Memorial Day weekend, which signals the start of the summer tourism season.

Dave Worrell, communications director for the Alaska Travel Industry Association in Anchorage, said people are worried about the economy.

Some 450,000 people requested tourism guides to Alaska this year, but they're not all planning to visit. According to Worrell, a survey last November of those requesting visitor guides indicated that 12 percent planned to definitely travel to Alaska, another 41 percent probably would, 26 percent probably would not visit and 18 percent definitely would not.

Another survey in January indicated 12 percent of those requesting travel guides still planned to visit Alaska, 28 percent said they probably would, 35 percent said they probably would not and 24 percent said they definitely would not.

By March, surveyors were being told only 13 percent of those requesting guides would visit, 21 percent probably would, 31 percent probably would not and 32 percent definitely would not, Worrell said.

The big selling point for people to come to Alaska is the mountains, glaciers and wildlife, and that has remained consistent, he said.

"People want to come to Alaska to experience the wilderness," he said. "Alaska is in many ways perceived as exotic, but safe, because it is in the United States."

Larger businesses are more financially able to offer discounts to entice visitors despite the economy.

"All you have to do is look at the cruise lines," he said. "You can get a cruise in Alaska waters for under $400, round-trip cruises on the Inside Passage for seven days. Normally around $700 is a good price. A base level price under $400 is unheard of."

The big concern, Worrell said, is the type of visitor who buys a $375 stateroom for their Alaska experience. They are not the kind of visitor who pays $900 for a balcony stateroom, and they probably won't take as many side trips. They will probably buy T-shirts instead of take a flightseeing experience.

"Our members are telling us that by and large this will be the worst summer they can remember," he said. "Bookings are down 30 to 60 percent and even more in some places. The farther from the water, the worse."

On the bright side, the price of gasoline is remaining reasonable, so long-haul recreational vehicle travel could be up, although it by no means will make up for declines in the other sectors, he said.

Matt Atkinson, co-owner of Northern Alaska Tour Co., in Fairbanks, said his firm is down 24 percent in bookings so far this season, but that business is relatively stable.

"What we do is not a direct function of overall visitation," he said. "We work primarily with independent travelers. For us the to-date figures are terrible compared to the last five years."

His firm attracts many independent travelers for bus tours to the Arctic Circle, mostly in the 40- to 65-year-old age range, he said.

"We tried some discounts and got a few, but it seems like to us if someone is interested, they would take a discount special, but they would also come without it," he said.

At K-2 Aviation, which offers flight seeing tours and glacier landings in Denali National Park and other areas, office manager Kristy Kingery said business has been brisk, thanks in part to extremely good weather.

"We're probably down a little bit, but it looks like we are having a solid early season," she said.

But Scott Reisland, whose family operates the Grizzly Bear Resort just south of Denali National Park, said his business is way down for the two RV parks, as well as his cabins and hotel rooms.

"Our first quarter for pre-bookings was down 72 percent from the year before," he said. "We are starting to move the needle by massive discounting."

Reisland, whose family has operated the resort for 41 years, has been expanding over the past three years because of the demand, he said.

"Every year since 1968, we built a couple more cabins or added RV sites," he said. "Every year we developed our old homestead property."

The rest of the season aside, Reisland said the Memorial Day weekend would be a good one, because he had booked a Harley Davidson Hog Association group.

Meanwhile, Reisland said he has hired a lot fewer than the usual 35 to 40 employees, including part-timers, and he and his family will be working a lot harder this summer.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska

journal.,com.