Hospitality and Tourism Management Major Leading Duck Tours in Alaska This Summer

This summer, Hospitality and Tourism Management major Ally Becker finds herself 4,082 miles from her Broadalbin, N.Y., home, loving every minute of life in a different time zone as she leads duck tours in Ketchikan, Alaska. Ally will make her way back to New York in late August and start her second year at SUNY Schenectady, taking classes and interning with Discover Schenectady.

The recipient of the prestigious New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association’s (NYSHTA) Fred and Gertrude England Hospitality Education Foundation Scholarship and the New York State Tourism Industry Association (NYSTIA) scholarship, Ally carries a notebook everywhere she goes in Ketchikan, so she can share the wonders of the “salmon capital of the world” with tourists from around the globe.

Alaska! What led you there this summer?

My parents “accidentally” found me a job here when they were here on a cruise. I looked into it and actually took a different job during the summer of 2023 in Skagway, in southeast Alaska. I was driving a small tour bus while narrating tours for 2.5 to 6 hours. I wrote my own script for that tour by taking tours with other people, buying books, going to all of the museums, talking to everyone I could and asking questions.

Tell us about Ketchikan!

Well, there are 10,000 people living here. It’s the wettest city in America. It rains constantly; last year they got 170 inches of rain. Tourism is the number one industry and fishing is number two. It’s the salmon capital of the world. All the creeks have salmon running up them. At one point, the bulk of the world’s salmon came from Ketchikan. I love telling people all about Ketchikan during my tours.

You already had your bachelor’s degree when you started in the Hospitality and Tourism Management major at SUNY Schenectady. Why did  you decide to come back to school?

I earned my bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from SUNY Cortland. I was working as a Children’s Librarian at the Amsterdam Free Library  and I really loved working with the kids, but I found that I really missed working in the tourism industry. (I had worked in the industry in Savannah, Georgia, for a year, driving trolleys and narrating tours and working at the Mercer Williams House Museum.) I knew there was a lot about tourism that I didn’t know and I missed learning.

What have you gained by coming to SUNY Schenectady so far?

I have so many opportunities with the College that I never would have had before. I have gone to New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association (NYSHTA) conferences and made so many connections. I found out about destination marketing organizations and interned with one last semester - Discover Schenectady - where I created itineraries for their website, wrote blog posts, updated their calendar, and got college credit for it. I’m going to intern with them again this fall. I also participated in the NYSHTA Day of Advocacy in Albany, N.Y., meeting with elected officials. Also, the support that I have received at SUNY Schenectady from all of my professors has been incredible. I’ve made friends. I’m learning so much and it’s just been an incredible experience.

What are your plans after you graduate?

I want to go on to earn my master’s degree, get more involved in travel and tourism, and I would like to be able to teach at community colleges.