MESA, Ariz. -- Northwest Indiana tourism officials got the royal treatment over the weekend, whisked around the Phoenix-Mesa area and shown sites that Arizona officials hope will attract even more Midwesterners to one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.
With the establishment of SkyValue USA flights on a regular basis to Mesa's growing Gateway Williams Airport, both Gary and Mesa officials hope the new air travel will do more than link families.
Mesa officials are hoping new visitors will come and scout the area for vacations and winter lodging, and Gary officials hope Phoenix-Mesa residents will use the Gary Chicago International Airport to visit or revisit the Windy City and Northwest Indiana.
"It's really a mirror story of Gary," said Robert Brinton, executive director of Mesa Convention and Visitors Bureau, who wants to see the Mesa airport become the Phoenix area's secondary airport.
Brinton said while he focused on showing Gary-area travel agents and tourism officials Mesa sites, the larger Phoenix metropolitan area also can be used as a draw.
"A visitor isn't going to know which city they're in," Brinton said.
And the area is close enough to other Arizona sites -- the Grand Canyon, Sedona, the mountain ranges -- that some of the Indiana visitors believe Mesa could serve as a more affordable place to visit and stretch out time spent in the Phoenix area.
"On that, I've got to rate it real high," said Vince Miller of Dyer, who was scoping out Mesa for a friend who runs a Schererville travel agency.
Anita Chan, an agent with C.P. Louie Travel Agency of Chinatown in Chicago, said she will book flights out of Gary to the five southern U.S. destinations that SkyValue plans to frequent. She expects some customers will want to avoid O'Hare International and Midway International airports.
"It's a lot more headache," Chan said.
Brinton decided to show the Northwest Indiana visitors something beyond the expected sites, such as downtown Phoenix or the Chicago Cubs' Mesa-based winter camp.
On Saturday, the Northwest Indiana officials went to the Apache Trail, which is just east of Mesa, near Superstition Mountain Range.
There they saw Goldfield Ghost Town, a re-creation of a gold-mining town that didn't exist. Brinton wanted the officials also to see Tortilla Flats, a stagecoach stop that really did exist, but time didn't permit.
At the Tortilla Flats eatery, every chair is a horse saddle, Brinton said, and cactus are actually on the menu as "Prickly Pear Ice Cream."
Mesa itself is along the western side of the mountain range, part of the larger Rocky Mountain Range. The Grand Canyon and its national park are five hours north of Mesa.
The Mesa area stretches wide from the Gateway Williams Airport -- a 5,000-acre facility -- to the Scottsdale and Tempe borders. Fifteen miles from downtown Mesa is downtown Phoenix.
Mesa is more populated than Miami. It gets little rain, so water is piped in. But the city plans to expand even more.
Located on the East Valley next to Phoenix, Mesa is home to 450,000 residents, but Brinton says that goes up by 150,000 in the winter when Chicagoans, Midwesterners, Easterners and, of course, Canadians -- together the so-called "snowbirds" -- nest in the area.
Many own homes that they use only in the winter, Mesa officials said.
Tori and Don Wilcoxon, Mesa merchants at the Farmers Market, said they can usually spot a Chicagoan or Canadian in the winter time.
Selling their designs and scarves on Saturday, the Wilcoxons said they put a bit more clothing layers on during the winter. People from up north wear less, comfortable in shorts and sandals.
The northerners are not cold in the warmer Arizona winter. The phenomenon is also noticed by downtown merchant and Web designer Patricia McNauget, a Chicago native who now lives in Mesa.
Still, some northerners are surprised to see the fleece scarves she sells, Tori Wilcoxon said. Yet it does snow sometimes in Mesa.
Rarely, she said, but it has fallen from the sky, to melt minutes later.