Traffic to Visitors Bureau website soars
The Yuma Visitors Bureau is drawing significantly more traffic to its updated website and raising the area’s profile through media coverage and other means, Executive Director Linda Morgan told the Yuma City Council during an update at its work session Tuesday.
Total user sessions at www.visityuma.com were up more than 64 percent in 2016 over the previous year, with 62 percent more page views, and “unique visitors” new to the website were up 57 percent. “So 76 percent of the Visit Yuma traffic is conducted by users which are new to the site. That is really exciting because these are new people who are becoming interested in Yuma, and are going to our website to find out information,” she said.
She said all the bureau’s advertising is sending people to the website, those view- ers are having an easier time finding what they need, “and it’s really creating a new interest in Yuma.”
Morgan hinted the city will be getting some more exposure soon. “We just had some reporters and videographers in town, I’m not going give away too much on this but pretty soon you’ll be hearing that Yuma’s Historic Downtown will be spotlighted by this organization.
“They were just here, they were actually here Thursday for Midnight at the Oasis, so it should be really good footage,” she said.
She said the bureau’s board has refined its definition of what target market would provide the most bang for the area’s buck, while continuing to pursue all markets, and narrowed it down to women ages 3544, with annual income of $55,000, who live within driving distance.
“These people are usually looking for unique, authentic adventures, may or may not be traveling with kids, and may or may not have Yuma as their final destination,” she said.
She said travel spending in Yuma County for 2015, the most recent year available, was $624 million, compared with $651 million in 2014, but she said that was caused by a 21 percent decrease in fuel and transportation prices.
She said the city collected about $5 million in its 2 percent hospitality tax during calendar year 2016, and “we are doing very well this year to probably come in just under $6 million.”
Morgan said of the bureau’s two main events of 2016, the Rio de Cerveza’s revenue was up 30 percent and added up to a $5,000 donation for the Yuma Veterans Fund, and the Electric Light Parade had almost 90 floats and drew about 40,000 viewers to its new route along Fourth Avenue.
YVB paired with Arizona Game and Fish on a new event during dove-hunting season, the “World Champion Dove Cook-Off,” and also won an award from that department as its “business partner of the year,” Morgan said.
Tours and events hosted by the bureau, including Behind the Guns at Yuma Proving Ground, the Field Fresh tours and Date Night dinner continue to find success during the winter high season.