Tourism sales staff reported ongoing lead generation and group bookings alongside a modest decline in bed‑tax collections compared with the previous year.
Staff said they logged over 110 new calls and emails, 48 new organic meetings, 42 new leads, 19 new RFPs and five booked events since the prior meeting. Confirmed future events include the second annual USA Volleyball Prescott Shootout (projected to drive more than 675 room nights next year), the Western Writers of America annual conference in June 2028 (about 1,400 rooms) and ongoing efforts to retain multi‑year events.
On finance, staff reported full‑year bed‑tax collections for fiscal 2025 were about $1,565,000, roughly $65,000 above the FY25 budget but 3.7% (about $60,000) lower than FY24 collections. Staff noted hotel occupancy down about 2.3% year over year, average daily rate down about 2.5%, and revenue per available room down almost 5% year over year; those trends reflect expected softening and lower international visitation.
Staff also highlighted a string of government‑sector cancellations affecting block bookings, which do not require deposits and have been difficult to replace. A staff member explained a recent set of cancellations of roughly 30 rooms for several nights came from government accounts and are difficult to recover.
Staff said they are pursuing more lead generation in markets such as Phoenix and Flagstaff, hosting SkyWest executives in December for route discussions and working on a variety of contracted and repeat events to stabilize future room night demand.
This was an informational staff report; no committee vote was taken.