Fun in the sun: Scottsdale to begin annual push to lure cold weather visitors
Oct 11, 2016, 5:37 AM
(Facebook Photo)
PHOENIX — A Phoenix suburb is readying a holiday advertising push to lure in visitors from places that have cold winters.
Scottsdale is hoping to bring in late-year tourists with its campaign, “A Warm Southwestern Holiday”.
With convention business slowing down at the end of the year, more hotel rooms are available, so the folks from Experience Scottsdale are urging cold weather visitors to come get a little sun.
“We’re going to encourage people to stroll through the Desert Botanical Garden during the Luminarias,” Stephanie Pressler, community affairs manager for Experience Scottsdale, said. “We’re telling them that they can have tamales and sip Mexican hot chocolate. They can go ice skating at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess.”
Hotel occupancy in November and December has gone up 11 percent since the city’s marketing effort began five years ago. Pressler said it’s all about creating an emotional connection between visitors and the city.
“They’ll see the twinkly lights throughout the downtown. We’re just trying to give them a sense, through our descriptions and imagery, of what they can expect to see and taste and feel when they’re in Scottsdale over the holidays,” she said.
The marketing targets potential visitors from Chicago, New York, Denver and Canada and is being done through both e- and direct mail.
A website, ScottsdaleHolidayExperience.com, is set to launch Oct. 31.