Outdoor Economics Working Group

1. Ensure sustainable tourism development that is aligned with goals for protecting the natural resource values of the Verde River watershed and surrounding landscape.

   • Develop a regional vision, strategy and action plan for sustainable tourism development.

   • Continue to coordinate with the SVVTC and VVREO, including their web resources.

   • Use marketing and materials to encourage longer duration visits by tourists, leading them to contribute more in revenue to the region, while also proactively encouraging more dispersed recreational use.

2. Build connections and balance between economic and environmental interests in the Verde Valley.

   • Engage local stakeholders to promote the Sedona-Verde Valley, especially local business, to share their stories and content on the geotourism marketing channels.

   • Promote visitation that limits negative impacts to the environment.

3. Increase the reach and effectiveness of the geotourism digital marketing efforts.

• Developed and successfully launched a National Geographic-partnered website and the Sedona Verde Valley website with their tourism council.

• Established a long-term business and marketing plan using a shared-funding model with the Sedona-Verde Valley Tourism Council

• Worked with the Arizona Office of Tourism to provide funding to their sustainability model

• Integrated “One for the Verde,” a funding mechanism for stream and river improvement projects, and the Red Rock Trail Fund, to support trail development and maintenance, within the Sedona Verde Valley Tourism Council efforts.

• Northern Arizona University conducted a tourism survey to provide regional information for future tourism council efforts. 

Short Term:

• Increase the reach and effectiveness of the geotourism digital marketing efforts, measured by the number of people following social media platforms, number of people visiting geotourism/tourism web sites for the region, and the number of people receiving newsletters.

• Engage local stakeholders to promote the Sedona-Verde Valley, especially local business, to share their stories and content on the geotourism marketing channels.

• Use the promotional activities connected with the geotourism project to encourage longer duration visits by tourists, leading them to contribute more in revenue to the region while also creating opportunities for recreational dispersal throughout the region that lessens the impacts of intense use at some sites.

  • Develop a hand-out or other written material for visitors and residents to take from visitor centers, tourism bureaus, and other sources of physical collateral.

Long Term/Ongoing:

• Collaborate with other Verde Front working groups to develop a handout or other written material for visitors and residents to take from visitor centers, tourism bureaus, and other sources of physical collateral.

• Link written material for visitors/residents to web site resources.  For example, integrate with the Verde Front web site, the National Geographic geotourism web site, and the Sedona-Verde Valley Tourism Council website – ensure consistency of messaging across those platforms.

• Use marketing and promotional materials to proactively drive recreational users to recreation sites and encourage more dispersed recreational use (i.e. direct users away from overcrowded, damaged sites to less utilized sites with greater capacity).  These efforts will need to be coordinated closely with the land management agencies to ensure that overcrowding issues aren’t deflected, causing damage in areas that are less staffed and less resilient to the impacts.

• Support VVREO’s vision and its guiding principles as outlined in its 2018 Verde Valley Economic Development Strategic Plan.