Sedona tourism staff cite softening demand, win council ad boost and roll out trail-mapping changes

City tourism staff updated the Sedona Tourism Advisory Board on local market trends, a new visitor guide, a City Council-approved advertising amendment and a digital trail-mapping partnership during a regularly scheduled meeting.

Andrew, a city tourism staff member, told the board that multiple data sources show a modest softening in demand and visitor spending in May and June 2025. He said June hotel occupancy and revenue were down in the local sample while short-term rental revenue rose because those units increased their average daily rates. "We are seeing decreases in the hotel market in June, but we're not seeing that same level of decrease in the short term rental market," Andrew said.

The update tied several different signals together: national TSA throughput and inbound-travel figures, local hotel reporting, scraped short-term-rental data (Airbnb/VRBO) and city traffic counts. Staff noted caveats for each data source: hotel panels do not include every property, short-term rental scraping may mark owner-blocked dates as unavailable, and card-based spend data will change later this year when the city moves to a new Visa-based feed with Symphony.

Why it matters: staff framed the briefing as an effort to move faster on tactics when near-real-time indicators show potential weakness. Lauren, a city marketing staff member, said the city asked the Sedona City Council for an immediate advertising injection after businesses reported declining revenue and traffic counts showed fewer cars in June. The council met on July 28 and approved an amendment to the city's marketing contract with DVA to add $50,000 for paid advertising and up to $10,000 for agency creative fees to expand the summer campaign.

"We asked for that extra $60,000—$50,000 of that would be spent in advertising," Lauren said while explaining the council action and how the additional funds would be allocated (airport banner placement, expanded digital and social buys, and paid search).

Staff described the reallocation strategy: pull planned spend out of Seattle and Denver, add the extra funding to drive markets (Phoenix, Los Angeles, Tucson and other regional drive markets), and keep existing spend in San Francisco and Dallas. Lauren said the board may consider lifting the campaign flight window for air markets by about six weeks so flight-market ads run earlier than drive-market ads.

Heat safety and transit adjustments: staff described a coordinated heat-safety effort with the U.S. Forest Service that includes printed signage, a short heat-safety video displayed on trailhead kiosks and sandwich boards at popular trailheads. Because of heat concerns the Sedona shuttle service temporarily cut or reduced some summer runs: Route 12 was suspended and Route 11 service hours were shortened from July 31 through Sept. 1 (first bus to trailheads at 7 a.m.; last outbound to trailheads at noon; last returns between about 3:10 and 3:15 p.m.). Andrew said Cathedral Rock saw fewer afternoon incidents because shade reduces exposure there.

Business outreach and survey: staff described a newly launched community-listening effort and an anonymous July business-performance survey. Fifteen businesses responded; respondents reported mixed performance in May and a more negative trend in June. Staff summarized the survey results: in June more respondents reported lower revenue and profit compared with May and year-to-date comparisons.

Kiosk, visitor guide and trade activity: staff said the city printed a modest run of a new Sedona visitor guide and published a PDF/flipbook for digital distribution; guides are available at the Uptown Visitor Center and Red Rock Ranger District, and discussions are underway to place copies in Flagstaff. The tourism office also described 37 FAM and press trips in fiscal year 2025 reaching 187 travel professionals and journalists, plus trade-show participation supported by an Arizona Office of Tourism (AOT) rural co-op arrangement that lowered the city’s cost for events such as IPW.

Trail-mapping and AllTrails/OpenStreetMap work: staff described a technical partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, AllTrails and an OpenStreetMap vendor to de-prioritize social (informal) trails on public-facing apps. The team is tagging informal trails in the base OpenStreetMap layer so they render with lighter symbology and do not appear as prominent routes. "We can create our own curated maps so you don't see the subway cave when we talk about where to hike in Sedona," Andrew said, explaining the goal of steering visitors to designated routes and reducing confusion or risk from informal access routes.

Board action: the board approved the minutes of its June 4, 2025 meeting. A separate, earlier City Council action on July 28 to amend the DVA marketing contract was reported to the board as having been approved unanimously by the council.

Votes at a glance - Approve minutes of June 4, 2025 meeting — Motion: "I move to approve"; mover/second not specified; outcome: approved by voice vote. - Sedona City Council special meeting, July 28, 2025 — Amendment to DVA marketing contract to add $50,000 of paid advertising and up to $10,000 in agency creative fees; reported to the board as approved unanimously by the council.

Board members and business commenters praised the heat-safety materials and encouraged continued communication with small businesses, suggested adding pet-safety reminders to heat advisories and recommended quarterly pulse surveys so staff can detect changes faster. Staff said the city will continue to refine attribution and traffic data, bring a fuller campaign report in September and pursue ongoing trail-map maintenance with the Forest Service.

Less-critical details/future steps: staff said the Poco Diablo hotel remains closed for renovation and is expected to reopen under the Outbound brand in 2026; lodging-sample effects from that closure complicate short-term occupancy comparisons. Staff also reported kiosk hardware is on site and development of content management and wireframes is underway with an implementation target in early 2026.