By Tommy Acosta —
Sedona, AZ –The city is now tasked with managing tourism after crowning itself as the new Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) for Sedona.
All eyes are upon the city and its council as they walk a treacherous plank above the stormy waters churning beneath as they try to come up with a plan to curb runaway tourism yet attract visitors who would spend money and stay.
Good luck.
TripAdvisor just named Sedona as one of the most beautiful places to visit and stay.
Everywhere in the travel business world, Sedona is being lauded for its beauty, its restaurants, its resorts and hotels; its hiking, its spirituality and healing nature; its adventures, and everything else under the sun one could enjoy in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
This is going to draw even more visitors. The harder you try to draw the moneyed in, the destitute will still come in droves to bask in the bountiful amenities Sedona offers.
Clogged roads during the busy season are a fact of life. Sedonans are just going to have to learn how to deal with it.
Maybe if we paint the red rocks black, put up signs reading “People who make less than $100,000 turn around and go home,” put roadblocks up for those who drive into town, tear up the runways at Sedona Airport, we might tighten the tourist faucet a bit. But they will find a way to come anyway. The mystique of Sedona is just too much of a draw.
The council and city are dealing with a growing visitor tsunami that in no means shows any sign of abating.
There will be many ideas discussed as the city tries to find a way to slow down the influx of day-trippers and increase the number of those who come to stay for a few days and spend money.
But there just ain’t no way they can do that without bringing those who come for a day or two, fill the hiking trails, eat in the more affordable establishments, then go home.
It’s been suggested targeting people who fly into Phoenix for a vacation, but no doubt most visitors drive, and that means more cars on the road.
The city will not be able to make most Sedonans happy no matter what it tries to do or recommends … except business owners in town, whether they live here or not. They are most pleased when they see the mile-long traffic jams paralyzing residents trying to get from one side of town to another.
And let’s not forget the ATVs that will continue to proliferate when the city fails in its effort to ban or regulate them. These companies are marketing Sedona on their own, drawing just the kind of visitors the city council does not want.
The city is damned if it does and damned if it don’t. While it tries to draw the affluent, its destination marketing will only increase the number of cars on the road because the less affluent are going to come regardless of the effort to attract money spenders.
It’s simple multiplication. Basic addition.
Those involved in the effort, both city staff and Sedona citizens, should be commended for undertaking this almost impossible task to redefine tourism in Sedona.
But it all goes back to this question…are we the owners of Sedona or its stewards?
Sometimes trying to change something that cannot be changed requires changing oneself instead.
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6 Comments
Great observation.
Thought all cities were responsible for their own marketing, management and growth?
So they woke up and realized that paying another entity to do so is a waste of money. Let’s see where it goes and how much it actually saves or doesn’t before beating the idea down.
Sad but True- Great Article Tommy!
A very good summary of our situation. Maybe we should use money saved from not spending a penny on marketing to hire the people who coordinated the censoring programs with Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for the Biden admin. They could block the posting of the thousands of fabulous selfies that tend to draw in so many tourists.
All joking aside, you are correct that there’s really no stopping this huge wave of tourists; the focus needs to be on mitigating the pain of having more people than a town is designed to accommodate. If they must spend money on marketing, why not focus it on drawing existing tourists to the nearby towns of Cottonwood, Jerome, Flagstaff, Cornville, etc? This might at least spread out the high volume of tourists.
Please don’t send any to Cottonwood. Here we are all expecting the dam to break. “Progress” means clogged roads & it’s coming our way too. SCARY. I now longer go to Sedona. It used to be an art destination which is drew me here. Jerome is already clogged & tourists can’t find parking space. And no one is mentioning what happens if we all need to leave at the same time wilfires & other emergencies.
Some good observations. I’m not sure that our tourist traffic is any worse than it was 20 years ago. At that time the Chamber counted 3 to 4 million tourists – today, 3 to 4 million tourists.
What changed? More STRs, Tlaquepaque North and 100s of thousands of selfies on FB, Instagram and every other social media platform. They’re going to come whether you promote Sedona or not. Spending more may attract higher end folks, but that is a additive to what is here now. Sure we want that?
I already meet people in other cities that say they’re never coming back to our little bottleneck nightmare.
And despite the comments being very accurate – the runway at the Sedona Airport is just fine and designed for what we get. And…it is self sustaining. NO city money goes into the airport, NO county money goes into the airport, in fact NO tax money goes into the airport. One of the entities that really has little to no effect on our residents…but only if you keep the city’s hands off it as their track record in managing anything is really not stellar.