Established: 2000

Location: 4619 Spenard Road, #A, Anchorage, Alaska, 99517.

Telephone: (907)929-2822

Focus of service: Open year round, the center is the first privately owned full service visitors' center in the state, according to Mike and Peggy Anderson, co-owners with Ed Glavinic.

The focus is helping visitors with information, ticketing, reservations and itinerary planning.

"We find whatever they want to do and make it happen for them," Mike Anderson said.

The center has a gift shop and a free visitors orientation. It sells hunting and fishing licenses and rents cars, cell phones, bicycles, two-way radios and binoculars.

The center also sells tickets for wildlife viewing, flightseeing, city tours, fishing charters, bear viewing, glacier tours, the Alaska Railroad and Denali National Park.

The center takes a statewide approach to tourism business.

According to Mike Anderson, 60 percent of Alaska visitors arrive at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and stay in west Anchorage hotels.

History of company: The Andersons met on the North Slope and formerly ran Peggy's Dustbusters, a cleaning business they sold in 1996. They then went into magazine publishing.

The publishing venture allowed the Andersons to make key contacts that help them in their current business.

Major accomplishments: With three owners, three full-time employees and three part-timers, the center claims to provide visitor information to the 1,400 hotel rooms and 20-30 bed-and-breakfasts in west Anchorage.

The center has a summer kiosk at the downtown Saturday market and a gift shop at the Sourdough Mining Company Restaurant. They also are testing other markets.

In the off-season they publish the "free map" which is distributed statewide.

Business growth has been 30 to 40 percent a year.

Major players: Mike and Peggy Anderson and Ed Glavinic are partners and co-owners of the center.

Mike Anderson is from Vancouver, Wash., and came to Alaska in 1990. He worked two years on the North Slope oil fields, where he met Peggy, who is from Boston and came to Alaska in 1971.

Glavinic was born in Alaska and graduated from East High School in Anchorage. He has a bachelor's degree in business economics from Linfield College in Oregon. He owned his own computer servicing company, Micro Computer Applications, before linking up with the Andersons in publishing.

-- Pat King