Could Tucson’s tourism industry be on the rebound?

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TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) – COVID precautions haven’t been as suppressive to our local travel industry as you might think – it has seen a big boom that is only getting stronger.

The Tucson travel industry woke up this morning with a strong recovery. Conde Nast Traveler magazine put Tucson on its annual hotlist of the best attractions – right next to glitzy international spots like Dubai.

It’s Dan Gibson’s job at Visit Tucson to convince people to visit Tucson – so getting on the magazine’s hotlist is a real gift.

“It just opens you up to a group of people who may never have thought of Tucson,” he said. “When there are endless places to travel and those mentions start to add up. It feels like everyone is talking about Tucson and then it becomes impossible not to come here.”

But Tucson tourism has recovered even without the magazine’s help. Visitors locked in by COVID and hungry for something completely different can find it here, in award-winning restaurants so unique that the United Nations sees the food here as a cultural treasure and in a natural beauty like nothing they do at home will see.

When Donna Wilkerson came here to visit her family, she was surprised at how different it is from her home in North Carolina.

“Because we live on the coast and we don’t have any other flowers like these here. I’ve never seen that before,” she said. “So if someone is from the east coast, I’d say the beauty of Arizona. And when people think of Arizona, it’s just desert, but it’s not.”

They saw more guests at the Hotel McCoy in February. With more vaccinations and more people who like to go out, the number of guests has increased every month since then.

Amanda Rochelle says the first visitors to arrive could drive to Tucson from places like California or Texas.

“I would definitely say that a lot of these people, especially in the past, are people who are just naturally more of the outdoors,” she said. “They do a lot of like, you know, hiking, things like that. A lot of that lot because they want to do live events and outdoor things that automatically feel safer just because the spaces are less cramped.”

Travel experts say the boom is mostly in the recreational travel space – that Tucson has still not seen a return from the big business events that power the big resorts.

Tucson’s hot summers usually cool the travel business, but Visit Tucson’s Dan Gibson believes that people looking to travel again can make summer busier, even if they’re Phoenix residents or Mexicans just for a weekend come. He believes the real impact of the Conde Nast article praising Tucson could come in the fall.

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