Changing Fall Colors, ‘Leaf-ometer’ Bring Autumn Visitors

This month is increasingly important for our tourism economy thanks in large part to the changing fall colors and bump in tourism that these changes bring. Autumn is special to Arizonans, and Flagstaff is the ideal place to experience the season, attracting plenty of visitors from the deserts. Saguaros are special, but let’s face it, they don’t put on the same fall show seen on the high-country stage.   

Fall has traditionally represented low visitation in Flagstaff, but fall colors are changing that.

Discover Flagstaff promotes this trend with our online Leaf-ometer, which the team updates throughout the fall to inform visitors of the changing conditions so they know what to expect when they come to town. The concept is simple: the Leaf-ometer changes from green to yellow to orange and red as the aspen trees in our region move through their fall color sequence.

Link: https://www.flagstaffarizona.org/plan-your-trip/leafometer/

Discover Flagstaff uses the online tool to promote visitation, and it serves as a lead-in to get travelers looking at our website, where we can interest them in all the other offerings during this time of year, including festivals such as Oktoberfest and attractions such as the scenic Gondola at Snowbowl, and of course, Lowell Observatory. The site offers restaurant and hotel recommendations, too.

The Leaf-ometer becomes a real-time invitation to enjoy one of Arizona’s most spectacular natural events. It celebrates the beauty of Flagstaff’s landscapes, and it reinforces that Flagstaff is a four-season destination worth visiting again and again.

The Leaf-ometer’s page views exemplify the widget’s popularity, with the majority of views coming from metro Phoenix. Social media posts for both campaigns have achieved more than 10,000 page views and hundreds of engagements. These campaigns are backed with advertising and earned media.

Phoenix Magazine named the Leaf-ometer (and the related Snow-ometer we break out later in the season) as the best marketing campaign in the state for a small market in the magazine’s 2025 Arizona Travel Awards, and media outlets have given the Leaf-ometer tons of ink and airtime in recent years.

Every time the media publicizes the Leaf-ometer in a print or broadcast feature story, it inspires that audience to make a trip during the fall to our mountain town. That, in turn, supports all of our restaurants, attractions and hotels that employ 8,000 people in the Flagstaff tourism industry.

When those visitors spend money on Flagstaff hotels and restaurants, it supports Bed, Board and Beverage tax collections, which the city uses to support arts, sciences, open spaces and parks, and a host of other initiatives. FBN

By Ryan Randazzo

Ryan Randazzo is the media relations and marketing project manager for Discover Flagstaff.