Visit Anchorage Scrambles for One-Day Whirlwind by High-Level Dignitaries

Visit Anchorage became the point of contact for delegations from Washington, DC, Moscow, and news organizations from around the world. Saupe says, “We got notice on Saturday morning that they were looking for over 100 rooms, and we were chock full. I mean, this was the peakiest peak week of the season!”

The date of the summit fell in the overlap between summer tourism season and the first days of the school year. “School started; there was no transportation available,” Saupe says. Confining the summit to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson streamlined matters, but delegates staying at Hotel Captain Cook still needed rides, and Visit Anchorage fielded those questions.

“What if we need a motorcade? Where are all those limos? Where are all those motorcoaches? They had some really interesting requests,” Saupe says.

Beyond accommodations, Saupe says Visit Anchorage handled extra requests from the media. “They needed locations: where to shoot, where’s a good deck, where’s a good backdrop, where can I get power? ‘Tell me some other stories that I might talk about Anchorage while I’m here.’ So we started rolling through and met all of those needs.”

Trump had visited Alaska before as president, making refueling stops during trips to Asia on three occasions in 2019. He spent more time in Anchorage as a private citizen in July 2022, when he held a rally at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The summit began shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday, August 15, when Air Force One landed at the base. President Vladimir Putin arrived about a half-hour later in his official Ilyushin Il-62. Trump greeted Putin on a red carpet and, after a flyover by visiting B-2 bombers, escorted him in a presidential limousine to talks that lasted nearly three hours, alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Around 3 p.m., the two leaders held a joint briefing for the press. In his remarks, Putin mentioned the Lend-Lease memorial in Magadan, Russia, one of Anchorage’s sister cities, and the companion memorial in Fairbanks. Saupe’s counterpart in the Interior, Explore Fairbanks CEO and President Scott McCrea, commented that the international exposure is good for tourism statewide.

“All of this was happening as we were serving the thousands of other visitors in our community,” Saupe adds. “We’re proud, and I hope all of Anchorage is proud about what we just accomplished as a community over this past week. It was a big lift, and I think we did ourselves well.”

Saupe was speaking to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, reporting on tourism marketing efforts by Visit Anchorage. She noted that the value of meetings held in Anchorage in 2024, at $118 million, was near a record; only the previous year surpassed it, with $134 million worth of meetings in 2023.

That’s business as usual for Visit Anchorage; the same team is on hand for special events like a presidential summit. Saupe says, “One of the values of having a DMO, a destination marketing organization, in your community is to do that work that is maybe unexpected.”