Monthly attractions report: Flagstaff visitation down about 11% year‑over‑year through December
Loading...
Summary
Lowell Observatory’s monthly attractions report showed a year‑over‑year visitation decline of roughly 11.6% through December; staff attributed declines to a mild winter, wildfire impacts, tariffs and the federal government shutdown affecting Grand Canyon visitation.
Heather Craig of Lowell Observatory presented the monthly attractions report covering December and year‑to‑date comparisons through December. She reported that overall visitation to the Northern Arizona attractions in her report was down about 11.64% compared with 2024; Grand Canyon total monthly entrance counts were down about 11.24% year‑over‑year.
Craig noted weather differences — low snowfall and mild conditions — and cited wildfire impacts and the recent federal government shutdown as contributing factors to lower visitation. She said her reporting approach adjusts historical numbers to create apples‑to‑apples comparisons and offered to add contextual flags (for example, "fire," "tariffs," or other anomalies) to future monthly slides so commissioners can quickly see factors that may have affected visitation in any month.
Commissioners asked for additional context in future reports (noting the timing of last summer’s wildfire and tariff announcements) and asked staff to add short reference notes to the slides. Heather said she could include short textual context flags and would continue to maintain underlying spreadsheets and a documented list of data sources and contacts.
What to watch: the commission asked staff to track monthly KPI progress against the revised FY27 targets and to flag external events that materially affect visitation so commissioners can interpret month‑to‑month changes correctly.
