Desert Wonder Tours Founder Receives Local Prestigious Nomination

This is Robert’s first nomination for the Lloyd Shires Tourism Award and he feels truly honored. Having launched Desert Wonder Tours on Veteran’s day in November 2017, Robert has used his vast marketing skills to elevate the business which started out with one used 15 passenger van, no market capital, no advertising budget, and no employees.

Despite extreme setbacks by the pandemic shutdowns, prohibitions and slowdowns, Robert’s innovative, and creative marketing skills enabled Desert Wonder Tours to grow despite the pandemic. Robert partnered his tour van with two local non-profits to deliver food boxes to Chloride, AZ., a small mining ghost town with some residents who were struggling to find transportation to get to town for food due to pandemic restrictions. Bob’s out-of-the-box thinking wherein he adapted into a courier service for COVID testing samples, transporting them from doctors and companies all over Kingman to Wickenburg 5 days a week.

Robert began his Marketing career in 1983 at Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort Casino where he was initially brought on as head of Banquets & Conventions then promoted to Director of Marketing around 1984. While in that position, he worked with the Riverside Maintenance department to design a float for the Laughlin River Days parade to depict a conceptualization of a future bridge across the Colorado River connecting Arizona and Nevada at Laughlin. At that time Laughlin, Nevada was an up-and-coming destination point outside of Las Vegas.