The Sunday night premiere of Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC drew a record audience of 4.96 million viewers, the best ever for a TLC program launch. According to the Nielson ratings, 79% of this audience was above age 35 – a ripe audience for Alaska’s special brand of tourism.

Sarah Palin's Alaska

But cashing in on a hit show with a record audience isn’t the only reason why the Alaska Division of Tourism and the Alaska Travel Industry Association need to embrace Sarah Palin.  The simple fact is that it is indeed Sarah Palin’s Alaska, because like it or not, everyone associates Alaska more with Palin than with Denali, Mt. Mckinley or the Northern Lights.

If there’s any fallout – as in people who do not want to visit Alaska because they don’t like Palin, then there’s not much that Alaska can do to change their minds. On the other hand, there’s a heck of a lot they can do to tap those swept up by the Palin Effect.

Back in 2008, when it was announced that the then Governor Palin was going to be the Republican VP candidate, the Alaska Travel Industry Association had just sent out 500,000 promotional brochures with Palin’s picture on each brochure. That year, 4% more people showed interest in visiting Alaska.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin on TravelAlaska.com

The ATIA also had 2.6 million more brochures with Palin’s picture printed and waiting to be sent after the elections. The Palin Effect hit the brochures hard in 2009 and the response rate was 20% higher.

Ron Peck, president of ATIA, tells MSNBC that he understands that there are some people who will never watch the show, but also adds that “Anything that increases the interest in Alaska as a pristine and wild environment — which is really what we’re selling — is a plus.”

The positives and negatives of using Sarah Palin’s reality show to promote the state were probably best summed up by Palin herself - “Sure, there will be the usual critics who still won’t understand why we would document the natural resources and uniqueness of the Last Frontier, though in doing this I am keeping my promise to fellow Alaskans that I would do all I could to support and promote Alaska… Yes, they’ll criticize us no matter what, so I might as well climb and fly and trek and build and hunt and fish and share with you the awe-inspiring beauty of Alaska…and because I wanted my family along for the ride, I want your family to come along, too. Follow me there!”

Both the producers of the show (Mark Burnett Productions) and the ATIA plan to provide more information on the show’s website (TLC site & spalaska.com) and Alaska Tourism’s site (www.travelalaska.com) about how visitors can recreate the adventures of Sarah Palin shown on the show. This includes information and links for the locations and service providers.