Arizona targets wealthy tourists

Ads aim to lure affluent from cold-weather cities

Arizona tourism officials are training their crosshairs on five new cold-weather markets this fall and winter as they shift from mass-marketing the state to targeting affluent customers who are most likely to visit.

John Stearns
The Arizona Republic

"We’ve moved from a product-centric strategy to a consumer-centric strategy," Margie Emmermann, director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, told tourism representatives Tuesday before the agency released its 2004 marketing and media plan.

The Tourism Office plans a $1 million marketing campaign that focuses on affluent empty-nesters and families. The campaign will use radio, online and other media in five markets that research indicates will yield such visitors: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, St. Louis, Dallas and Portland, Ore.

The program is modeled after a successful campaign in Chicago last year that boosted awareness of Arizona among households with incomes of $100,000 or more and increased tourism from Chicago to Arizona by 29 percent, the Tourism Office said.

The campaign includes continued marketing in Chicago and Southern California, the latter a strong market for the state. Other plans include continued in-state promotions and a continued focus on Arizona’s top five international markets: Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Arizona and California supply more than half of Arizona’s overnight leisure travelers, Emmermann said.

"We cannot take these visitors for granted," she said.

The Tourism Office’s fiscal 2004 plan is several months late, held up by legislative threats to ax the agency’s funding to reduce the state’s budget deficit. But with $9 million in state funding restored and an additional $3 million anticipated from Indian casino proceeds under Proposition 202, the agency is moving quickly to get the word out, Emmermann said.

The Tourism Office plays a central role in promoting a state where visitors spend $16 billion a year on tourism, account for $1 billion in General Fund taxes, an overall impact of $30 billion, and 450,000 jobs, Emmermann said.

The campaign will continue to focus on Arizona’s five niches: culture and heritage, golf and sports, nature and adventure, shopping and entertainment, and resorts and ranches.

The agency seeks better promotion of Arizona’s Native American heritage and will conduct a special workshop today with tribal members to lay groundwork.

That pleases Gary Williams, marketing manager for the Gila River Indian Community’s Wild Horse Pass Development Authority.

With the Tourism Office’s help, Indians would like to go from "not just being in the background, we’d like to be up in the forefront," Williams said.

The Tourism Office’s target audiences in the five cities are empty-nesters, 45 to 64 years old, with household incomes of $150,000 or more; affluent baby-boomer families, 45 to 54, with the same incomes; "trailing boomers," 35 to 44, with household incomes of $75,000 or more; and Arizona residents.

"Our efforts to attract high-value visitors are paying off," Emmermann said, noting that the state drew fewer visitors last year but that the visitors were big spenders.

Part of the agency’s campaign will include coffeehouse promotions. The cardboard wraps protecting customers’ hands from hot cups will be stamped with Arizona messages.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/1029tourismplan29.html