Forum to focus on winter visitors

The area's winter visitors and their economic impact on the community will be the topic of the next in a series of business forums, Know Yuma Inside & Out.

The forum will be held from 7 to 8 a.m. Thursday in the council chambers of Yuma City Hall, One City Plaza. Members of the business community are invited to attend free. Continental breakfast will be available.

Tourism is the third-largest sector of the Yuma-area economy, with a large portion of the impact from the thousands of people from colder part of the U.S. and Canada who travel each winter to Yuma to bask in the sunshine. Some come for a visit; others have become homeowners in Yuma and are considered winter residents.

Guest speakers will be Jon Heidrich, co-owner of Shangri-La RV Resort, and Mac McCann, director of operations for Palms RV Resort. They will talk about winter visitor demographics and how they've changed, what winter visitors need and want in park amenities and technology and what they're looking in terms of businesses and entertainment.

Other topics will include:

• Canadian currency exchange and how it impacts the buying decisions of Canadians who winter in Yuma.

• Insight into the baby boomer generation and how recreational vehicle parks are accommodating this new generation of winter visitors.

• Marketing to winter visitors online.

The monthly business forum series is sponsored by the Yuma Sun in partnership with the city of Yuma, Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, Yuma Visitors Bureau and Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. The next forum will be in January.