By Mike Sunnucks | Phoenix Business Journal
When Jessica Johnson arrives in Arizona from her native Indiana, she wants to see true desert.
The 24-year old teacher from Terre Haute is looking to travel to the West soon, and she said she would pick a destination other than metro Phoenix if a visit here did not include a desert experience.
“I would expect to see desert and also mountainous areas,” Johnson said.
“I would expect to see some plants and animals and some crazy daredevils to be out to play in the desert,” said Lindsey Charbonneau, 23, who hopes to travel to the Southwest early next year from Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Charbonneau and other visitors often pin their ideal vacation on coming to Scottsdale and other local cities to commune with the desert. But what many get is a long trek to find a spot where they can do that — which could hurt the state’s tourism trade and make a serious dent in the coffers of urban cities banking on travel dollars.
