At this time of year, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley typically prepare for a surge in tourism, filling the coffers of community businesses and municipal governments through tax revenue.
But these are not typical times and the coronavirus pandemic has lowered projections and expectations for the upcoming years as adjustments are being made in marketing and budgets, according to Scottsdale Independent.
Experience Scottsdale, a destination and marketing firm that holds contracts with both Paradise Valley and Scottsdale, laid out the impact of the virus for local government leaders. It also laid out steps toward luring a robust tourism industry back into prominence starting with “staycation” outreach.
The first phase leading into Memorial Day weekend will be reaching out to folks suffering cabin fever from stay-at-home orders to get out of the house for a getaway, according to Scottsdale Independent. The target audiences are those in neighboring states within driving range.
Caroline Stoeckel, vice president of marketing for Experience Scottsdale, told Scottsdale Independent, “Industry research is showing people will be more likely to travel by car in the short term than plane and drive market are the most lucrative in the early recovery phase.
The next phase will continue with driveable markets and entail messaging strategies reaching out to its key markets on a series of different platforms, according to Scottsdale Independent.
Mountain Shadows General Manager Andrew Chippindall told Scottsdale Independent a key will be the return of groups and an effort has been made to not go down the road of discounting rooms.
The effort is being made with a proposed budget that had dropped from $16.2 million to just under $10 million, with salary cuts and layoffs at Experience Scottsdale.
The moves are a reflection of the reported 45% expected decline in travel spending for the 2020 tourism industry, Scottsdale Independent reported. A $519 billion in lost revenue and a decline of $80 billion in taxes is also expected.
Jobs are also being hit hard with a projected loss of 6.9 million as a result of the coronavirus. Locally, the piece of tax revenue pie for Paradise Valley was $15.9 million in sales tax and a $4.6 million in bed tax.
Despite the hit, the local markets are providing optimism that the initial phase of reopening will leave the Arizona communities in better positions than others.
“Thankfully, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley are positioned really well going into summer,” Stoeckel told Scottsdale Independent.