Santa Cruz County was awarded funding from the Arizona Department of Transportation Planning Assistance for Rural Areas program to prepare the Rio Rico Walking and Biking Study. The purpose of the Study is to enable Santa Cruz County to establish a program for the construction of bike lanes and sidewalks that are desired to provide safe and convenient pedestrian and bicycle access and connectivity to select Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District No. 35 facilities as well as use for the general public for transportation and recreational purposes.

The Pinal Creek Trail corridor study is being conducted in conjunction with the Cobre Valley Comprehensive Transportation Study, to provide alternative modes of transportation to key educational and recreational areas in the Globe area. The purpose of the study is to review previous trail studies and recreation trail plans that will address the most critical current and future non-motorized modes of transportation within the study area. The concept of turning Pinal Creek, which runs through the City, into a functioning urban greenbelt, has long been the dream of several citizens of the community.

This report describes the economic impacts of travel to and through Arizona and the state’s fifteen counties. The estimates of the direct impacts associated with traveler spending in Arizona were produced using the Regional Travel Impact Model developed by Dean Runyan Associates. The estimates for Arizona are comparable to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The estimates of spending, earnings, employment and tax receipts are also used as input data to derive estimates of other economic measures, including gross domestic product and secondary effects of the travel industry.

Pima County, in partnership with the National Park Service, has been an active participant in the development of a 70 mile segment of the trail. With the preparation of this Master Plan, Pima County has embarked on an active program to acquire the necessary rights-of-way and easements and to construct the Pima County segment of the national historic trail.

This survey of visitors to Arizona’s wine tourism regions was undertaken to gather market research on a growing industry, including visitor demographics, travel patterns, satisfaction with the experience and spending patterns. This information will assist the wineries, vineyards, tasting rooms and local tourism communities in the wine regions with targeted marketing efforts, product development, and advocacy for a burgeoning industry that is critical to the health of these rural regional economies.

A survey of visitors to Native American tribal lands in Arizona was commissioned by the Arizona Office of Tourism and conducted by NAU’s Arizona Hospitality Research & Resource Center in 2004-2005. This research constituted the first major study of visitors to Native American tribes in Arizona and possibly in the Southwest. This final report, Survey of Visitors to Arizona Tribal Lands, provides first-ever baseline visitor data, presented in aggregate for the eight participating Arizona tribes. The study found that visitors to these Native American tribes in Arizona are slightly older, have higher annual incomes, stay longer, and have higher daily expenditures (for lodging, shopping and entertainment) than Arizona visitors generally. Visitors to Arizona’s tribes are also more interested in cultural and historic activities, shopping for arts and crafts, educational experiences and sightseeing than are visitors overall. They are also highly satisfied with their visits to Native American tribal lands.