The Santa Cruz County government has begun the first phase of a new, $300,000 project to increase tourism around our region’s wine industry.
The SCC Board of Supervisors approved a solicitation for a new study at their regular meeting on February 7, at the request of Frank Dillon, SCC Community Development Director. The County is seeking proposals for development of a market study and winery district master plan and land use overlay district as part of a larger Southern Arizona Cuisine Tourism Initiative.
SCC recently received a grant for $300,000 from the Arizona Economic Development Administration Travel, Tourism & Outdoor Recreation to create a regional cuisine tourism strategy and implementation plan. “Cuisine tourism” is defined as leveraging the County’s leisure related activities that are a natural fit with making the regional wine presence more impactful and leveraging increased tourism spending and overnight visitation by building on our natural economic strengths and beauty of the area. Only 25% of winery visitors spent the night in southern Arizona, compared to 48% in the northern Arizona viticultural region based on a 2017 Northern Arizona University study.
The solicitation represents the first phase of the project; the second phase will build upon these findings to develop a countywide business, branding and marketing plan to execute the findings. This follow-on phase will link the northern part of the County (wineries in Sonoita) with food entrepreneurs in the southern portion of the County, leveraging regional commercial kitchens (two of which are in Nogales, one in Sonoita, one in Patagonia, and one in Sahuarita) as potential bases of operations.
Proposals must be received by March 21, and the study is tentatively scheduled to begin on April 18, for a period of one year.
The full text of the Request for Proposal can be viewed here: https://www.santacruzcountyaz.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16636/RFP-Southern-Arizona-Cuisine-Tourism-Initiative-Market-Study-and-Winery-District-Master-Plan-and-Land-Use-Overlay-District
