'CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC' FOR AZ TOURISM REBOUND

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona's desert tourism season is approaching its peak. The gem shows are under way in Tucson, the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament is this week, and spring training is just around the corner.

Restaurants are jammed, and lots of out-of-state vehicles are populating parking lots all over Phoenix and Tucson as snowbirds flee the cold confines of the East and Midwest for the more favorable climes of the desert.

Sherry Henry, executive director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, says the industry is "cautiously optimistic" that it will be a good season. Certainly, she said, it should exceed last year and perhaps even 2008, which were both down years because of the recession.

The tourism industry employed 172,000 Arizonans at its peak in 2006, state tourism statistics showed. That fell to 157,200 in 2009, the lowest total since the last recession, in 2002. Arizona tourism spending was a record $19.1 billion in 2007, according to figures supplied by the Arizona Office of Tourism from a study done by Dean Runyan Associates. It fell off to $18.5 billion in 2008 and to $16.6 billion in 2009. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable.

Henry and other officials from the industry will speak about its prospects on Friday's Arizona Week airing at 8:30 p.m. MST on KUAT-TV. Journalists who cover the industry will offer commentary and analysis on how this important part of the state's economy is doing.