Birding festival, golf courses, rich history seen as draws for tourism

  Yuma has room in the inn - many rooms in several "inns," in fact.

  But the area doesn't have as many vacancies as in other parts of the state, according to hotel occupancy statistics provided by the Arizona Office of Tourism.

  Not bad, considering that the Yuma area has the distinction of having added the largest percentage of new hotel rooms in Arizona in recent years.

  "We've increased our room inventory by 25 percent in the last couple of years," said Chris Bedinger, events planner and coordinator for the Yuma Visitors Bureau.

  At the same time, the Yuma area has seen a lesser drop in its hotel occupancy rate than much of the state, he said, even though it's spreading business among more hotels.

  Nationwide, the average hotel occupancy rate declined 10.7 percent in January over the same time in 2008. The numbers are even bleaker for Arizona, where the statewide average occupancy rate for the month was 52.1 percent, a drop of 13 percent from the previous January.

  In Yuma County, the occupancy rate in January was an average of 60.7 percent for a decline of 9.6 percent. That compares with declines of 14.6 percent for Maricopa County to 44.3 percent for Graham County. The only county that didn't show a decline in occupancy rates for January was Coconino County, likely because of the good ski season it enjoyed, Bedinger said.

  It was a different story in December, when Yuma County was the only county in the state to show a positive occupancy rate for the month, with a gain of 5.4 percent.

  "We're still strong," Bedinger said. "Our occupancy is down, but compared to the rest of the state, we're doing OK."

  And the Yuma Visitors Bureau is working hard to keep things that way, he said.

  A large number of Yuma-area hotel rooms are booked by business travelers, such as agribusinessmen, government workers and businessmen, he said. Yuma Proving Ground alone brings in a lot of business for the hotels with visiting contractors and military personnel.

  It's the weekends and summer that have hoteliers concerned, Bedinger said.

  Major events go a long way toward filling hotel rooms, such as the Birding and Nature Festival to be held April 15-19 that brings in people from Hawaii to Florida and even other countries, he said. Last year the event drew 200 participants, and this year he's hopeful the number will be even higher.

  The festival is featured in much of the advertising for the Yuma area, especially in birding publications such as Birder's World.

   Other major draws are Midnight at the Oasis and dove hunting season, he said. "Those usually sell out. Those are the kinds of things we like to build on."

  To that end, the bureau and other local organizations such as Caballeros de Yuma are brainstorming new events to draw people to Yuma - especially in the summer months. A couple of ideas being kicked around are a heat endurance race and "a bigger blast for the Fourth of July" - maybe a foot race in the Colorado River.

  In between the major events, there's plenty of other attractions Yuma can bank on to boost tourism, Bedinger said. That's becoming even more true through the National Heritage Area's efforts to revitalize the riverfront with the East and West Wetlands and development of the Pivot Point Conference Center and soon-to-open Hilton Garden Inn.

  "Our history has been our diamond in the rough," Bedinger said. "With the new development, we can really promote it."

  He noted that as coach tours seek interesting new destinations, they're increasingly turning to history. That's something Yuma is rich in with its Colorado River crossing heritage that has been "drawing travelers since before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock," states an ad promoting Yuma.

  "Spanish explorers, American adventurers, the Mormon battalion and more than 60,000 49ers headed to the California gold fields all found their way to Yuma well before the Civil War."

  Besides the well-known Yuma Territorial Prison, there's other historical nuggets to be found like the Castle Dome Mines museum and its re-created ghost town and the YPG historical museum, Bedinger said.

  He's also putting a lot of effort into promoting the Yuma area as a golf destination, such as attending the Golf and Travel Show in Toronto attended by 30,000 people.

  "Everyone wanted to come to Arizona. Our market strategy is that we have cheaper tee times one-fourth the price of Phoenix to play on our beautiful courses. And while you're in Yuma to play golf, you can also do all these other things like boating, fishing and historic tours."

   The focus of the bureau's various efforts to promote the Yuma area through national advertising, trade shows and hosting travel writers, he said, is to give travelers to Arizona - and Arizonans themselves - new itineraries.

  "We show them there's something to Arizona besides the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. We're working to get Yuma on the map. We're just now seeing a spark of interest. That's based on our promotion of Yuma."

  But all that, he concluded, is contingent on funding the Yuma Visitors Bureau receives through revenue generated by the city's 2 percent hospitality tax.

 "Without that, all this will go away," he said.

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.