Message From The General Manager

Laura Chastain

NPS numbers continue to show increased visitation - May was up 5.19% over last year, year to date as of May we are up 4.65%. This seemed to level off in May compared with our double digit annual increase through April, which is great because pushing our slower season is what we have been targeting. June and July reports are not available yet. Click here for the link to the current NPS Reports. 

Roads: We have almost made it - the roads project is almost complete and ahead of schedule!

July 4th - Wow what an amazing event this year. Parade, local bands, games for the kids, great local food, a magician and our first ever Laser Light Show! First I want to thank all of our financial sponsors:  Town of Tusayan, Holiday Inn Express Suites, Red Feather Lodge, Grand Canyon Plaza Resort, Big E Steakhouse, Grand Canyon Airlines, RP's Stagestop, Papillon Helicopter, Grand Canyon Helicopter, Grand Canyon Best Western Squire Inn, and Camper Village. We could not have done it without your support!

In kind donations from silent auction to staff and time included: Red Feather Lodge, Big E Steakhouse, Grand Canyon Airlines, Best Western Squire Inn, RP's Stagestop, Plaza Bonita, Harris Family, Exit 64, Pink Jeep, Tusayan Fire Department, Bright Angel Bicycle, Grand Canyon Recreation, Town of Tusayan Interns, Coconino County Sheriff, Grand Canyon Brewery, Lumber Yard, Waste Management, 7 Mile Lodge, Grand Canyon National Park Lodges, Williams / Grand Canyon News, Arizona Exposure Marketing, Circle Pines KOA, Bearizona, Canyon Trading, Grand Canyon Jeep Tours Safari's, Out of Africa, Buck Wild Hummer Tours, Papillon, Grand Canyon Helicopters, Grand Canyon Plaza Hotel, Maverick, Grand Canyon Airlines, The Grand Hotel, Paragon Skydive, JJ Schoppmann Construction and Schoppmann Investments, and Bill Fitzgerald.

While we are still finalizing numbers this fundraising event doubled what we did last year. Again thank you all - I can't wait until next year's Centennial July 4th Celebration!

Ambassador Program: We now have 11 part-time staff that are working very hard to assist our guests. So far the ambassador's have made contact with over 5,000 visitors as they wait at Tusayan bus stops for their Grand Adventure to begin. Our staff is able to assist visitors with basic questions as well as answer questions about hotel availability and tours. This program has been made possible through special funding from the Town of Tusayan.

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June / July Recap

Grand Circle Meeting in Canyon de Chelly - This group meets quarterly throughout the Grand Circle whose whole mission is to support tourism throughout the "Grand Circle"  if you are not a member and want to get more information please contact me.

Grand Canyon Become the Expert - We had a wide range of local knowledge in the room from brand new to years of experience.  Everyone left with some new knowledge!  Hope to see you at our next one September 12th at 10 am.

Centennial Planning - I am coordinating with NPS and Grand Canyon Association on promotion of the Grand Canyon Centennial.  Next year's marketing budget will include messaging about our Centennial.  Click here for information on Centennial Logo use and park events planned.  Another great link regarding the Centennial is through ASU - they worked in collaboration with NPS and Cline Library at Northern Arizona University to create the Grand Canyon Centennial Project.  There are also some subcommittees forming so let me know if you are interested in getting more involved in the planning.

Employment FAM Tour - Thank you local employers for coming out again to meet with Veteran employment placement specialist.  The Veteran's are becoming involved in our community and the placement specialist are working hard with the contacts they meet at these events to place Veteran's in your business.  If you have not participated please consider our next event scheduled for November 6th.  A special thank-you to the Town of Tusayan, and Big E Steakhouse for hosting.

AOT Rural Marketing Grant - I completed our 2018 application for matching funds close to $50,000 for our 2018 - 2019 Marketing  Campaign.  I am still waiting on final campaign approval - once finalized I will be able to complete the full marketing plan for 2018-2019.

July 4th - In addition to all the businesses that supported the event listed above we had one of the largest attendances in years.  A special shout out to Bright Angel Bicycles for coordinating the pre-parade bike decorating contest.  The Parade floats were fantastic - top three include: National Park Service, Grand Canyon Best Western Squire Inn and our first place winner 2nd year in a row was Grand Canyon Plaza Hotel.  Winner gets to display the traveling trophy with a name plate added until the next year.  Local band the Boulder Alley Boys and Exit 64 rocked our afternoon and evening.  Grand Canyon Recreation and the Tusayan Interns entertained the kids along with magician Kevin Barnes.  Fantastic food provided by Plaza Bonita, Pink Jeep/RP's Stage Stop, Big E Steakhouse and the Harris Family.  And the highlight of the evening our first ever Laser Light showed sponsored by the Town of Tusayan!

August

August 15th 5:30 pm - Chamber Networking Mixer sponsored by Pink Jeep and IMAX Please RSVP to Mike@PinkJeep.com 

Aug 22nd Mobile Veteran's Van 10 am - 4 pm in front of the Tusayan Fire Department Please share this information with your staff.  There are many benefits to bringing this service to our area including: showing we are a Veteran friendly place to live and work, reduction in time absent because service coming to them locally instead of them having to go to Prescott, and best of all showing we care and support them!

New advertising opportunity from the Grand Canyon Chamber

Interested in placing banner ads on our website?  Information will be mailed out next week regarding the opportunity to place banner ads on our high traffic pages.  From May 1, 2017 through April 30th 2018 we had 239,000 visitors to our website.  Take you business to the next level and advertise with us.

AOT - FAM's who's coming?

August 27th - journalist Miriam Porter

Current Marketing efforts

Facebook - June / July Recap

18 Posts 3 Ads - 28,638 Impressions, 17,427 reach with 435 reactions

Yellow News Newsletter by Bill Gibb - Reach on-line 14,196, print 135,181 Bill was visiting from Scotland here's a link to the article

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/our-canyon-trip-really-was-grand/#provider_moreover - Thank you Buck Wild Hummer Tours, Papillon and Grand Canyon Plaza Hotel for hosting!

Facebook / Instagram - Aug plan

Facebook Posts - Heavy focus on events: Music Festival and Celebration of Art

Additional Advertising:

DriveGuide 1/2 page each issue

Northern AZ Exposure Map

Experience Sedona

Canadian Guide to AZ

Canadian Explore

Current Print Advertising in circulation:

Spring Drive Guide – circulation 200,000
1/6 page ad in Experience Sedona guide – circulation 275,000
1/3 panel Northern Arizona Exposure Map – 275,000 circulation

1/4 panel Grand Canyon South Rim, Tusayan, & Northern AZ
Plus our 2018 Visitor's Guide I40 corridor certified racks and now Prescott Valley

Working on 2018-2019 plan and funding - more to come soon!

Chamber Partner Opportunities

Grand Canyon Association - special request

Call for 2018 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art

Hosts- A Grand Place to Stay

Dear Grand Canyon community members,

The 2018 Celebration of Art is approaching and we are looking for host families for our artists. Hosting an artist is an excellent opportunity for community members to meet individuals from all over the country who appreciate the canyon as we do.  Living with a host family during the Celebration of Art is preferred by some artists as they enjoy spending time with those of us that live at Grand Canyon.

Hosted each year by the Grand Canyon Association, the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art is an annual event that includes 6 days of art related events followed by a 4-month long exhibition in Kolb Studio on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

The Celebration of Art features 25 artists from around the country who engage in a plein air competition and exhibition. Park visitors have the opportunity to watch the artists paint as they seek to represent the shifting light and shadow, amazing land forms, and vibrant colors of this vast landscape.

Proceeds from this event will support the goal of funding an art venue at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This permanent home will ensure that future generations of park visitors will be able to view the stunning art collection in the Grand Canyon National Park Museum and Grand Canyon Association Collections.

The plein air painters will need accommodations from September 7^th-16^th in order to participate in the event. Artists are typically out of the home before sunrise and gone for the bulk of the day, busy painting the canyon, they may return around lunch time and after sunset. Hosts are not obliged to provide dinner but may do so if they wish. If you have a spare bedroom and would like to volunteer to be a host, you will be rewarded with the experience of a lifetime. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Heather Peeters

Events Coordinator

Grand Canyon Association

928-638-7156

Grand Canyon Chamber Advertising

We still have a few advertising spaces available in our office.  Please contact me if you are interested.

National Park Service News

Joint News Release
For Immediate Release: August 1, 2018
NPS Contact: Rachel Grabenstein, 928-638-7071
USFS Contact: David Hercher, 928-634-8110
Obi Fire on Grand Canyon National Park North Rim Grows to 1,750 Acres; Stina Fire on Kaibab National Forest Confined at 28 Acres.

Grand Canyon, AZ - The Obi Fire is approximately 1,750 acres. Growth today was primarily in the northern and eastern portions of the fire perimeter. Light southwesterly winds throughout the day allowed fire to grow through pine needles and downed logs. Fire behavior was active with single tree torching and surface fire of one to two foot flames where the fire was consuming dead logs. This afternoon the area received light precipitation which moderated fire behavior.

Located in the far southwest corner of the Wahalla Plateau above Obi Point, the Obi Fire started on July 21st. Fire managers plan to continue the strategy of confining and containing the lightning caused fire in a predetermined area while providing for point protection of identified sensitive natural and cultural resources.

"While crews continue prep of containment lines around Cape Royal Road, we would like to remind park visitors to drive with caution around emergency response vehicles," said Incident Commander trainee Bryan Hakanson. Visitors driving along Cape Royal Road should be aware of fire crews working in the vicinity. Motorist should turn on their headlights and slow down for emergency response vehicles.

In the past week the Kaibab Plateau has had 10 starts, all of which have been actively suppressed by fire crews. Over the past week fire crews have also contained the 17 acre Atoko Fire, the 32.5 acre Saffron Fire and confined the 28 acre Stina fire.

At this time there are no road or trail closures within the park or on the forest, however individuals looking to hike out near Obi Point should check in with the Backcountry Information Center or North Rim Visitor Center before choosing a route.

Smoke from the Obi Fire is visible from both the North and South Rims of the park. However large scale wildfires across the west may also have impacts on the canyon over the next few days. Visitors may see increased smoke or haze filling the canyon. To see the map of haze associated with these wildfires visit, https://www.weather.gov/gjt/HazySkies_7-30-18 . For more information about air quality at Grand Canyon National Park visit, https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=31 .

Current resources assigned to the fires are one Type 2IA handcrew, five engines, one helicopter, helitack, two resource advisors, and a fire ecologist.

Each fire start is evaluated by fire management officials for the most appropriate management strategy. Firefighter safety, resources at risk, location of the fire, available resources, regional and national preparedness levels, and weather forecast are taken into consideration when responding to a wildfire ignition.

Please visit https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/management/firemanagement.htm for other information about wildland fire at Grand Canyon National Park or call 928-638-7819 for recorded fire information. For additional information and photos of the Obi Fire, visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6030/ .

For fire information on the Kaibab National Forest, visitwww.fs.usda.gov/kaibab or @KaibabNF on Facebook and Twitter or call (928) 635-8311 for recorded fire information.

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Media Requests

We are starting to see a number of media requests.  I have updated our media room page and added a Google form for media to fill out.  I will receive the requester’s information via email and in a pdf form which I will then share with those on my media list.  If you’re not on my media list please make sure your company has completed our contact information form.