President presents successes & goals in talks with council for annual contract
Greater Verde Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Christian Oliva del Rio presented the chamber’s annual update to the Cottonwood City Council at its June 2 meeting, outlining accomplishments and future plans for the chamber’s $110,000 annual contract with the city.
“Just six short years ago, we were right around $300,000 was the bed tax collections, and right now we’re close to pushing $700,000,” Oliva del Rio said, referring to the $678,857 bed tax the city collected in Fiscal Year 2024-25.
The chamber operates a visitor center in Old Town and on Cove Parkway, which also houses its Business Resource Center, both are registered with the Arizona Office of Tourism.
At the visitor center, 74% of visitors reported it was their first time in the Verde Valley, with 31% from Arizona, 60% out of state and 8% internationally. As for what drew them, hiking led at 23%, followed by shopping at 20%, dining at 18%, and weather and wine tied at 16%.
Oliva del Rio said chamber received a $3,200 Arizona Community Foundation of Sedona grant for its Cottonwood Business Resource Center for computers and a printer. Six nonprofits currently host meetings at the center and multiple chamber members host workshops. The chamber also received a $5,000 grant from Arizona Public Service to expand bilingual services by offering Spanish and English as a second language lessons.
“The other part of that is also then offering those workshops in Spanish,” Oliva del Rio said. “We have a very large Hispanic community here, and a lot of those businesses can use those resources, and we’ve been working hard at building those relationships over the last six years. We really do want to become a resource hub. We’re doing way more Hispanic outreach. Eventually, what I would like to see happen is for us to follow a model that the Prescott Valley Chamber is doing; they now have a Hispanic arm of the chamber.”
The resource center is grant-funded and over the last three years it has received $15,000 in grants to remodel and for furnishings.
The chamber owns 849 Cove Parkway with the resource center in Suite A. In September 2023, the chamber formed a 501(c)(3) foundation to write grants. The foundation’s goal is to eventually generate a return to help cover expenses.
“This year, we’ve officially hit our three-year mark … and get to start applying for larger grants and hopefully doing more good things in the community with that money,” Oliva del Rio said.
The chamber’s strategic plan through 2028 aims to increase Hispanic outreach, revitalize the Shop Local Campaign and increase membership 5% annually. The chamber is looking at adding a third person as an event coordinator as potentially as an intern or part-time employee, he said.
“We have revived our event committee, and so we’re exploring a lot of our existing events, and how we could potentially improve and or include new events,” Oliva del Rio said.
Oliva del Rio will return to council in July to present the chamber’s fiscal year 2027 plans and the scope of services as part of the contract extension.
