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Weather, golf and friends draw northern snowbirds

For these Canadians, wintering in Arizona is a picnic

Pat Shannahan/The Arizona Republic
George Greig (left), a five-year snowbird, dons a maple-leaf hat at the Great Canadian Picnic on Saturday. Canadians Morty Bercovitch (center) and Don Cunningham also attended the picnic.

Stephanie Paterik
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 2, 2007 12:00 AM

On Saturday morning at the base of South Mountain, the parking lot filled up with a curious array of license plates.

Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec.

About 3,000 people came to the park sporting maple-leaf flags, hats, shirts and face decals for the 55th-annual Great Canadian Picnic. They hauled in manufactured snow, practiced hockey and curling, and took photos with a Mountie who flew in for the occasion.

The new snowbirds are from Canada, and they are here in full force.

They may be less noticeable than Midwesterners, but the number of Canadian tourists here is climbing about 19 percent a year compared with 7 percent nationally. An estimated 423,000 visited Arizona for up to 30 days in 2005, and 342,000 visited in the first six months of 2006, the earliest data available.

Tourism officials estimate that hundreds of thousands more stay for longer than a month. No one tracks those snowbirds or where they come from, although the Arizona Office of Tourism is launching a pilot study this winter to find out.

Could it be the weather?

In addition to more flights, an improved exchange rate and advertising asking Canadians to give Arizona a chance, there are also the intangibles.

At Saturday's picnic, the crowd agreed the weather is the biggest reason to fly south. They said they prefer the open desert landscape to warm places like Florida and California that seem more crowded and artificial.

They also like to golf.

Don and Lynn Cunningham of Ontario stay in Phoenix from October to April, an 11-year ritual.

"The weather and the mountains - it's great for seniors," said Don, 61. "I don't know if the desert is for young people, but for older people who love to golf, it's fantastic."

Lynn, 58, said the couple toured Florida, California, New Mexico and Nevada before discovering Arizona.

"I like the mountains. Florida doesn't have this view," she said while lazing in a lawn chair at South Mountain Park. "It's more crowded there, too humid and expensive. It doesn't feel as comfortable."

When one Canadian settles in Arizona, others tend to follow. Alan Parker, 69, visited a friend a decade ago, and now he comes every year. Nine more of his friends from Winnipeg vacation here.

"It keeps on mushrooming," he said. "Somebody says 'come' and so they come and decide, 'This is what I like.' "

Grant Thompson, 60, is one of 200 Canadian snowbirds at his Mesa mobile home park. That sense of community is appealing, although he likes the Americans just as much.

"The people (here) are so friendly," he said. "I go to a coffee shop, and they know me from last year. They know I like sourdough toast."

10-year tourism plan

Arizona's tourist organizations realized Canada was an untapped market about 10 years ago and pooled their resources to make a dent. The Arizona Office of Tourism opened an office and hired a representative in Toronto.

Resorts and convention and visitors bureaus began going to Canadian trade shows. They invited the countries' travel writers to sample Arizona's golf and Native American attractions.

Two years ago, Arizona advertised to Canadian consumers for the first time. It is pumping up funding this year to compete with popular destinations like California and Florida.

Canadians have noticed, said Sgt. Patrick Webb, the Mountie from Calgary.

"Certainly you see the ads on radio and TV," he said. "That's always an impact."

Arizona may be on a roll, but it also faces challenges in the Canadian market. One is the new regulation that prevents Canadians from flying to the United States without a passport.

Doug Paterson, consul and senior trade commissioner for Canada in Arizona, said visitation could drop this year. Arizona was appealing because it was easy to get to.

"It's going to present some problems," he said of the passport rule. "Arizona is lovely, but once people have a passport, they could go anywhere in the world."

Aiming at young visitors

The other challenge is attracting younger, big-spending visitors from the metropolitan cities of eastern Canada, said Chris Ryall, Arizona's tourism rep in Canada.

Canada's typical visitor to Arizona is 55 to 74 years old, stays for 16 days and spends $53 per day or $850 per trip while here.

"We try and dispel the myth here in Canada that it (Arizona) is not just a dry and desolate desert, and it's not just for golf and the snowbirds," he said. "Phoenix, with the culinary scene and nightlife, is a little more multicultural than what it was a couple years ago."

Ryall said younger travelers look for ethnic restaurants, diverse attractions and big-city nightlife. And competition will always be a challenge. While Arizona's Canadian visitation is jumping more radically than other states, it falls behind Florida, California and New York for the total number of nights spent in a destination.

Florida counted 2 million Canadian visitors in 2005, although it does not separate tourists from winter residents the way Arizona does.

"It's a huge market for us," said Cassie Henderson, a representative from Visit Florida, the state's tourism arm.



Reach the reporter at (602) 444-7343.

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