The Verde Valley Regional Economic Forum on Oct. 21 in Cottonwood, saw well over 50 leaders across the Verde Valley come together to discuss economic progress, including how to shape tourism to residents’ advantage.

New Cottonwood City Manager Mario Cifuentez II said events like this are really helpful for showing people that bigger cities’ economies are not the only way to operate.

“You look at the percentage of the economy that the Verde Valley is of Yavapai County, that’s huge,” he said. “Folks see Prescott, Prescott Valley and they think of the major retailers and that sort of thing, but it really shows us the tourism dollars, sales tax dollars that come in … on this side of the mountain, and that’s what we can draw upon.”

The four-hour session was made up of presentations from several speakers including VVREO officials Verde Valley Regional Economic Organization Chairman Tom Binnings and Executive Director Marianne Langridge.

VVREO formed in 1995 and has granted more than $1.5 million in small business loans, according to a presentation.

A VVREO survey to business owners to evaluate their goals earlier this year found, from 112 responses across the Verde Valley, that top desires: Provide affordable housing, attract a diverse industry base, attract and retain workers younger than 40 and create new jobs that pay livable wages.

“This event is kind of a culmination of a project that’s been ongoing for about a year, which was the Verde Valley strategic plan,” VVREO Langridge said.

She said she wants to make this an annual event.

Binnings said that the Verde Valley makes up one third of the county’s economy.

Yavapai County’s overall working population working is about 50%, Binnings said. The highest productive households came from Cottonwood, at 53% of its toral population working, Verde Villages with 59%, and Cornville with 60%.

Yavapai County has a 13% poverty rate overall while the Verde Valley has about 16%.

Most of those who are working age live close to either State Route 260 or the Verde River, Binnings said.

“What’s even more encouraging is that those people … working are the highest-income earners, except for the VOC,” Binnings said. “That’s what you want: You want younger people working, being entrepreneurial, having jobs and earning good income, and that creates economic vitality.”

Also included were two panels composed of regional and state officials and smaller discussion groups focused on specific points in the economy like tourism and agriculture.

Local Tourism

The Verde Valley needs to reinforce and strengthen its collaboration for all communities in the region to be successful, President and CEO of Greater Verde Valley Chamber of Commerce Christian Olivia del Rio said.

“So we used to have … the Sedona-Verde Valley Tourism Council,” he said. “All of our municipalities came together to [plan economic development].”

Olivia del Rio said his discussion group was focused around tourism and their ideas for economic growth through tourism really comes down to higher cooperation between everyone in the region, including Sedona, Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Jerome, Camp Verde and unincorporated areas like Rimrock.

“Part of it, too, is … like, how do we promote regional assets which allow the individual communities to share funding?” city of Sedona tourism manager Andrew Grossman said. “So we’re not promoting each other’s communities, we’re promoting the regional assets, whether that be the heritage sites in the area, or a connector trail that would take you from community to community. The Verde Valley Wine Trail is a great example of something that already exists in that space.”

One of the panels focused on local economies included panelists Grossman, ISA Energy CEO and CleanTechAZ Cofounder Hunter Bjork and Realtor Mike Wise.

Grossman said he’s worked in other states that don’t have as much of what he called “bookable tourism” which means products tourists can reserve ahead of time.

“Then you also look at what our competitive advantage is,” he said, “whether that be our access to pristine public lands in the Coconino National Forest, the kind of myriad wellness modalities that are offered by practitioners. Also our protected night skies, for example.”

The best way to grow that part of the economy, Grossman said, is to focus on the tourists’ experience and whether they have a good time.

Budgets are tighter and people are traveling less often, so communities need to focus on how to make travelers’ experiences better to ensure they come back.

“Our team launched our current winter campaign last week,” Grossman said.

“It’s our fifth campaign that we’ve run into, typically new winter marketing and summer marketing, but our winter campaign is really rooted in the idea of presenting this collective destination as an alternative to an international trip during the next year.”

Wine Tourism

A very large part of the tourism economy in Arizona is wine tourism, and a large part of that comes to the Verde Valley.

“The total economic output because of the wine tourism is over $300 million and creates more than 2,000 jobs,” Northern Arizona University Economic Policy Research Associate Feifei Zhang, Ph.D., said during a panel that focused on state and regional trends.

This panel included Zhang, Arizona Association for Economic Development CEO Katie Hurst, Local First Arizona Director of Rural Development Jenna Rowell; and Vincent Redgrave, executive director of Yavapai College Regional Economic Development Center.

The numbers from the study Zhang referenced were only for wine tourism statewide, she said, but the Verde Valley is heavily impacted by it. This part of the economy alone also generates more spending in the surrounding areas, Zhang said, because a visitors to the wine economy are in the Verde Valley on business trips or group trips that go through the area.

“I think it’s because of the more ready infrastructure for hotels and more activities that people can do,” Zhang said.

National Impacts

Housing availability and affordability is one issue reaching across the nation, including the Verde Valley, that impacts the daily economy. Housing infrastructure is a big affordability issue, as well as its capacity to cope with demand.

“The infrastructure strain, again, … that’s a national and international issue,” Hurst said. “Basically, we were stagnant for 20 years with our electrical capacity and demand, and so we weren’t investing in that infrastructure, and now all of a sudden, we’re expecting it to grow 2.7%, which seems like a small number, but when you think about it took us 100 years to get to 8,600 kilowatt [hours], which is what our max capacity was this year on our peak day.”

The Verde Valley has also seen recent increases in building housing units to address availability.

“We have seen some great progress made by the city of Sedona, city of Cottonwood, Clarkdale … and especially Camp Verde with regards to apartments, multi-family,” Wise said.

Housing projects are ongoing in bigger municipalities across the region, including more than 100 apartment units planned for Sedona, nearly 200 in Cottonwood and about 300 in Camp Verde.

Part of this problem for affordability is how desirable the Verde Valley is to live in.

Zhang said there’s a transition worldwide for a digital nomad program, where one can hold a visa or work remotely for larger firms.

These high-paying jobs, along with the large retiree population, impacts the entire community, including housing and job availability.

Gen Z’s lifestyle is also different from previous generations in terms of how they relate to the economy even at a young age and is already “shaping markets.” Gen Z are those people born between 1997 and 2012.

“Their preference for travelling is a little different,” Zhang said. “They want to see more, not only the experience, but also sustainability. They care about the environment.”

Much of Gen Z’s travel is domestic and sustainability focused, she said, which means the Verde Valley also needs to be aware of how it moves forward with the assets it already has.

Many students who graduate from NAU or Yavapai College will stay in Arizona, but the vast majority of whom will go to Phoenix.

Several people said it’s important for the Verde Valley to appeal to the younger generation by continuing to grow its economy, provide more affordable housing and support small businesses and younger entrepreneurs.