- Randy Wilson, Daily Sun Editor
Flagstaff and other cities on the Colorado Plateau have yet to develop effective partnerships that would lengthn visitor statys and boost earnings.
A map of the Grand Circle puts Flagstaff in the southwest quadrant. Page is closer to the center, with Cortez, Colo., closer still. But with 11 national parks, 16 national monuments and portions of more than 20 scenic highways inside the circle, it’s the kind of map that one would think cities, businesses and tourist destinations would have been promoting for decades.
The idea has long been to market the attractions of the Four Corners as a week-long or even 10-day vacation, not a stopover day at the Grand Canyon for East Coast or Midwest tourists on their way west to Disneyland. But even though the Grand Circle Association celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, you won’t see its map in many places other than on its Web site.
And when ads for local destinations do appear in national magazines and publications, they tout an individual state or a city inside the Grand Circle, not the circle itself. Cooperation and coordination apparently come slowly in an industry as fiercely competitive as tourism, and whether things will change in the next quarter-century on the Colorado Plateau is doubtful.
DIFFERENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Take Flagstaff, for example. With nearly 5,000 hotel rooms, the city would have much to gain from an East Coast marketing campaign that puts it at the center of a “Grand Circle” of day trips, ending each night back at a Flagstaff motel room. A six-night, seven-day package would mean more than a doubling of the average length of stay by the typical Flagstaff tourist, and right in the class of tourist — traditional vacationer — that accounts already for more than half of all visitors.
But Flagstaff officials went for a different type of visitor with this year’s marketing campaign: They put $250,000 toward Phoenix heat “refugees” and Los Angeles weekend “staycationers” just in case Grand Canyon visitation went into the tank.
But the Canyon retained its appeal month in and out this year, despite the deepening recession. Visitation is off by less than 2 percent and the national park is again on track to top 4.5 million visitors for the year.
And the Arizona Cardinals, fresh off a Super Bowl appearance, drew crowds three and four times larger than normal during their three-week stay at NAU.
Would Flagstaff’s summer weekends, then, have been just as busy without the extra ads? Or, as the consultant who prepared this year’s visitor study for the city notes, would the city be getting more bang for its buck by focusing on the longer-staying vacationer and business/leisure traveler — and perhaps changing the economic profile of the industry, too?
LOW-PAID JOBS
That profile, although growing in total economic impact, still focuses on some of the lowest paid jobs in the region. Figures compiled by a consultant for the state of Arizona show that jobs in accommodations and food service account for more than 22 percent of the Coconino County non-farm workforce — only jobs in government make up a higher percentage. Yet when it comes to income, those hospitality jobs generate just $248 million a year, or 13 percent of personal wage income countywide.
When broken down by sub-occupations, the industry clearly pays far below the county median of $27,060 a year. Lodging managers, according to a state study, do earn $54,900 a year and food service managers $32,490.
But the median annual pay in food preparation and related jobs is $16,310, with restaurant cooks earning $22,200 and hosts and hostesses $15,810. Hourly pay for waiters and waitresses amounts to $15,550, but that does not include tips.
In lodging, a supervisor of janitorial or housekeeping staff earns $30,570, but the maids and housekeepers themselves earn $17,140. A hotel or resort desk clerk earns $17,000, while a ticket agent or travel clerk brings home $24,300.
CHANGE THE VISITOR PROFILE
One way to raise wages is to inject more money into the industry by having higher spending per visitor. The 2009 Flagstaff visitor study surveyed 1,000 visitors and found sharply higher spending by a minority of visitors, raising the average to double the median spending level (half above, half below) in some categories. It turns out that the 17 percent of all visitors had household incomes above $135,000, the single biggest cohort of visitors.
Those big spenders appear to be in the categories of business/leisure traveler ($532 per day), weekender ($331) and “visiting friends and relatives” ($227). But those three categories combined account for less than a quarter of all visitors to Flagstaff, and only the business/leisure traveler, at 14 days, stays for an extended length of time.
But when the spending is broken out by party instead of per person, the traditional vacation party seems worth further investment. This group accounts for 52 percent of all visitors and spends a healthy $548 a day while staying an average of four days. Bump that spending up by a few hundred dollars a day with more Grand Circle events and lengthen the visit by two days across several hundred thousand visitors, and the vacation party upgrade would single-handedly change the profile of staffing and wages in the Flagstaff hospitality sector.
BBB AS SEED MONEY
For Flagstaff residents generally, tourism after the recession will continue to be felt through the distribution of proceeds from the Bed, Board, and Beverage tax. This comes in at $5.2 million a year, and at least three-quarters of that total is paid by out-of-towners. Of that amount, nearly a third — $1.5 million — goes back into tourism promotion and support to keep the tourists — and dollars — rolling in. Extrapolations from visitor surveys put the total economic impact of tourism in Flagstaff alone at $501 million, including 5,400 jobs and $30 million in local tax revenue. How much of that is due to that $1.5 million investment a year is difficult to say, but its unlikely city officials would run a test by cutting the allocation. The question is whether tourism marketers would redirect some of the funds toward a Grand Circle strategy, assuming a Colorado Plateau coalition is ever developed.
That leaves $3.7 million to go to four other purposes, led by $1.7 million for parks and recreation on the theory that the locals deserve some urban open space and trails to escape the tourists. Lesser amounts go to beautification, economic development and arts and sciences, but all are paid for largely by nonresidents.
The renewal of the 2 percent BBB tax looms next spring in the May municipal election. Tourism in Flagstaff might not have reached its full potential, but it’s difficult to imagine much opposition to the BBB. As long as the Grand Canyon is around, goes the saying, so will be the tourists. Add to that the BBB, and maybe the Grand Circle will one day become more than just a line on a map.
Reach Randy Wilson at rwilson@azdailysun.com.
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