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Discover Flagstaff reports overall visitation gains while Grand Canyon visitation lags; visitor center sees surge from Phoenix heat
Summary
Attractions staff reported February visitation up about 12.54% across local attractions while the Grand Canyon was down roughly 5.1%; visitor-center staff said recent record-high temperatures in Phoenix drove large same-day and weekend visits, boosting gift shop sales.
Attractions staff told the commission that local visitation showed year-over-year growth even as the Grand Canyon reported declines.
"Our total monthly attraction visitation in February was up 12.54%," Heather Craig, marketing operations coordinator at the LOL Observatory, reported during the attractions update. She added that the Grand Canyon’s visitation was down about 5.1% compared with the same reporting period the prior year.
Staff attributed mixed results to weather variability — Heather said February delivered about 11.2 inches of snowfall at one site but warmer conditions across the West led to more rain and different visitation patterns. Staff listed upcoming local events, including International Dark Sky Week and Asteroid Day, as programming that could influence spring attendance.
Commission staff also singled out near-term economic signals. Ryan Randazzo warned commissioners that recent international events had pushed fuel and jet-fuel prices higher and that rising travel costs could affect summer demand, though he noted market occupancy remained robust through spring-break bookings.
Separately, visitor-center staff described a noticeable in-person surge over several recent weeks driven by extreme heat in Phoenix. The staff member said typical busy days bring about 300–350 visitors but recent days peaked between 500 and 600 visitors, with many visitors reporting they traveled to Flagstaff to escape high temperatures in the low desert. That uptick also increased gift-shop sales, staff said.
Commissioners asked staff to continue tracking occupancy and STAR metrics and to return those figures in the monthly deck so commissioners can monitor correlations between fuel costs, temperature shifts and visitation.
