Warm Arizona winters have always attracted tourists during the coldest months, but some of the winter visitors stick around for a few months rather than days.
Ever year these “snowbirds” can be expected around the state from as early as October until April. The modern snowbird started showing up in the 1950s. They were different from those we see now.
Alan Gotlieb and his wife Diana are snowbirds staying in Apache Junction.
They have been coming to Arizona with their horses since 2003 to escape the winter months back in Vermont.
"A couple of our children came out here for jobs and we just came out to visit them," Gotleib said. "We both fell in love with the place after a couple of years and visits."
The definition of a snowbird has changed over the years. It’s not golf and shuffleboard anymore. This new generation of Baby Boomer snow birds is a new breed.
Lorraine Pino with the Glendale Convention & Visitors Bureau calls them "snowbird plus."
"They are not looking for a relaxing vacation anymore, they are looking to integrate into the community, to have a great time while they’re here but also to give back," Pino said. "They look for opportunities to grow in the community and enjoy while there here on so many different levels."
Gotleib is an example of this.
"We work with the Future Cities program during the winter as judges, and we’ve done the science engineering fair as judges," he said. "We try to do as many of the community projects out here while we’ve been here as well."
Pino said snowbirds are now looking for adventures. The Gotleibs even have a white water rafting trip planned before they head back north.
Russell and Darlene Wright from Minnesota say Arizona wasn’t their first choice.
"Well, we went to Florida for several years because my folks went and retired and went and stayed winter down in Florida, so we’d go down and meet them and golf down there and stuff, so we had a little bit of a taste of Florida," Russell Wright said.
They say here in Arizona they did more than golf.
"Well we were the adventure crowd for most of the 15 years that we have been down here, but we ride our horses less and less each year so as we do that less, we look for more time at the pool and so forth," he said.
Pino said today’s snowbirds are looking for a more permanent place to stay.
"We’ve also become almost a real estate agency per se, because they are looking for those long-term opportunities to stay here throughout the winter months," she said.
Gotlieb agrees, saying their friends don’t fit any one profile.
"Right now I would say we have quite a wide mixture of friends. Friends who live in the parks which have RVs or park models, we have friends who own their own homes and all of the group just mixes together," he said.
The snowbirds come every winter in large numbers. The last study in 2003 done by Arizona State University estimated that more than 300,000 snowbirds migrate to Arizona and put $600 million into the economy.
Kiva Couchon with the Arizona Office of Tourism said that a new study would give insight on what the snowbirds mean to Arizona’s economy.
"A little bit more about the demographics of what type of visitors now; who are they, where do they come from, how are they traveling to Arizona, what are they doing when they’re here, how they’re spending their money when they’re here and all of that kind of information is relevant to how we market to them," Couchon said.
If an updated study is done Couchon said it would cost about $250,000 and take two years to complete, and specifically define who the new snowbirds are. Even without the study, snowbirds will still continue to travel out here for the warmth and to escape one thing.
"We don’t like the snow in Minnesota for that first half of the year," Wright said.
"And of course one of the things we don’t miss is the snow back home, quite honestly," Gotleib said.