In 2020, Arizona tourism got affected badly

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

In 2020, Arizona Tourism hit a massive drop because of the COVID-19 pandemic as overnight international visitor numbers fell to an estimated 68%. However, tourists in last year still spent $15 billion, state officials say.

Last year, spending by visitors dropped 41% compared to 2019, as total overnight visitation went down 31%, as per a report by the Arizona Office of Tourism.

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said that in 2020, Arizona welcomed 32.1 million total overnight visitors who spent $15 billion overall and contributed about $1.5 billion in combined state and local tax revenue.

Last year, tourism by Arizonans and other US state travelers made up a larger proportion of overnight tourists as international travel was plummeted out by pandemic restrictions.

In general, international overnight visitation was down 68% to an estimated 2 million tourists, with tourism from Mexico going down by 61% and Canadian tourism declining by 77%.

The state tourism office confirmed that overseas visitation from European and Asian nations went down by 84%.

Visitation by Arizonans and people from other states dropped 26% from 2019 to just over 30 million people. Domestic visitors made up 94% of all visitors to Arizona a rise of 7 percentage points from 2019.

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