Arizona tourism officials hope to use cold weather to appeal to Midwest

PHOENIX — As cold fronts move over a majority of the Midwest, leaving frigid temperatures and record-breaking amounts of snow, many residents in that area has viewed the Phoenix-area as paradise.

While some places in northern Arizona, particularly Flagstaff, have been rocked by the unusual lack of snowfall, the Valley has not seen highs below 60 degrees for a large part of the winter season.

This is good news for the Arizona Office of Tourism, which is capitalizing on the Valley’s warm winter weather to appeal to Midwesterners and get them to trade in their winter boots for hiking boots.

The Arizona Office of Tourism launched a new ad campaign in the Midwest in October in an effort to appeal to “cold weather places” that are also top feeder destinations.

And it’s working: According to Scott Dunn, a spokesman with the state’s tourism office, more than 55,000 hotel rooms have been booked by people who saw the online ads, generating about $22 million in hotel revenue. Of those numbers, about 1,400 people have booked hotels and flights in Phoenix since the start of 2018 alone.

“People see ads of the sunny Grand Canyon or someone sitting by the pool and they want to be in warm weather, too,” he said.

Dunn said the types of advertising campaigns that the office holds are “very proactive” and are held in cities that are not already over-saturated with similar types of marketing, like New York City.

“The idea is to be able to fish in the right pond,” he said. “We want make sure the fish are biting.”

KTAR News’ Ashley Flood contributed to this report. 

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