As I have long said, tourism is Scottsdale’s industry; the goose that laid the golden egg. By that I mean tourists have economic impact far in excess of the taxpayer-funded cost of the public services they consume, creating a fiscally-sustainable economy which permanent residents enjoy.
While the majority of Scottsdale tourists arrive by means other than private or corporate aircraft, those who do come to us by those means contribute proportionately much greater to our economy.
Examining a couple of statistics from a recent AZCentral article by Amy Edelen (@amyedelen):
According to Scottsdale’s Visitor Statistics Report, compiled by the city, the average spending per person per day for hotel visitors is an estimated $230…
On an average day, Scottsdale gets 366 visitors by plane, half of whom stay on the airport property for a day or less. Their spending injects more than $120,000 into the economy each day [approximately $328/person].
When you consider that the City of Scottsdale (the airport “sponsor” in FAA parlance) operates Scottsdale Airport as an enterprise fund–it receives no support from the city’s “general fund” revenues–that makes the per-person revenue even more impressive!
And it makes protecting the airport from residential encroachment (with the inevitable noise complaints) all the more important.
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Very enlightening.