Letter to The Editor:
Calling On Sedona’s Working Population

By Margareth Suzette Orah, Sedona Resident
(July 27, 2018)

I heard today that Whole Foods is laying off employees as it “is very slow”. It’s scary to lose your income, knowing you won’t be able to pay rent! There are a lot of people in Sedona who advocate the need to stop funding The Chamber “for a while,  as there are too many tourists that disrupt life for locals”.

As much as I understand and know first hand of the traffic problem – a serious one indeed, I want to reiterate that Sedona’s main and only income is from Tourism. Sedona has no other income to be able to function as a city, none! Income from tourism is what keeps our businesses alive and functioning (hotels, restaurants, shops), so they can employ people, so these people (the working population) can pay rent and put food on the table. Simply stated: No tourism, no business, followed by layoffs, followed by not being able to pay rent (stated in that order).

Summer is Sedona’s slow season. There are no tourists to occupy the hotels, and the restaurants.  When there are no tourists, there is no money to sustain a business. Businesses cannot pay their work force, so they are forced to layoff employees. I find there is a major disconnect in the minds of people when they accuse the businesses in Sedona of greed. A business is there to be successful. A successful business hires more employees. A business is the life line for any worker who needs a salary to live on.

Yes, we do have a major traffic problem that needs to be fixed immediately! The problem is not the Chamber bringing in too many tourists! The problem is the City’s commitment to improve the infrastructure to handle the increase in tourism. There lies our problem this year.

It is a fact that the majority of Sedona residents do not need to work. But, I want them to understand that if we are cutting down on tourism their favorite restaurants and shops will not be there to enjoy. They will close. They can’t survive on just the small Sedona population. Most of the amenities that make Sedona’s quality of life that we so appreciate will be forced to close. 

There are still a lot of people in Sedona who need to work in order to pay rent. There are a lot of small, individual businesses who depend on tourism for their livelihood, i.e. massage therapists, yoga studios, individual tour companies, retreat centers, Spas, healers, therapists, and more! All these people and businesses depend on tourism. Workers in restaurants, hotels and shops are what keep Sedona functioning. This is the backbone of any city. These  businesses doubled their income. The workers had jobs, so the standard of living got better for everybody. This is called abundance, and it is good!

I am appealing to this population of Sedona to use your common sense and not throw the baby out with the bathwater! The Sedona Chamber of Commerce is doing a superb job in promoting our town. It is doing the job it was hired to to.

As a Destination Marketing executive in my corporate career. I have marketed the various tourist destinations such as the  Caribbean Islands, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Egypt, Morocco, Switzerland and others.

Destination Marketing is a highly competitive and challenging business. Almost every country and city in the world know the immense economic benefits this lucrative market brings to their destination. They spend millions of dollars and marketing gimmicks to just be visible and get a small pie of this lucrative cake!

Sedona is competing against every country, city and town in the world! The Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, Maui, Orlando, Switzerland, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Australia, Iceland, Boulder, Bali. These destinations are in a constant competition and they never stop, always increasing in advertising and marketing. If you attend an international travel trade show you will be shocked to see miles and miles of booths from different destinations. Sedona’s booth is tiny! Why? Because it’s very expensive to have a booth at these international trade shows! Our budget is minute! And yet, we managed to be on the tourism map! Why? Because of the very hard and creative work of the Chamber! And no! It’s not a given for tourists to come to Sedona “anyway”. So what if we have beautiful Red Rocks? Iceland has gorgeous glaciers, Colorado has gorgeous hiking trails, the Caribbean has gorgeous beaches, Morocco is exotic, and now, even the Dominican Republic is on top of the list!

If you are not out there constantly, and you stop marketing your destination for even 6 months, you regress by years! Consumers have a very short attention span and short memories. You blink, and they are gone to the next destination that has a better advertising.   There are thousands of tourist destinations the consumer can choose from at their fingertips.

Many Sedona people falsely believe that tourists will come anyway, because of the beauty of the Red Rocks! This is a very serious and grave mistake in  judgment with very serious economic consequences for a tourist town like Sedona! Sedona’s income and economy will drop within less then a year if we stop marketing. Restaurants, hotels, shops will be slow, they will start laying off people, there will be no jobs and eventually there will be no more businesses except to businesses to support immediate local needs. 

In mid 1990’s Sedona was starving. There were no jobs to be had! The Chamber office was Uptown in a 10×10 cubicle with the CEO and a part time secretary! And see where we are now! We have a thriving economy, a thriving City, world class restaurants and a world class Chamber of Commerce with highly professional staff. The Chamber is coming up with many creative ways to promote our low season (July, August, December, January) so workers and small individual businesses can keep their jobs and pay rent.

Sedona Chamber of Commerce is the only department that is directly responsible for job creation in Sedona. This is called abundance and prosperity! As we grow, (and we need to grow, otherwise we regress), The City needs to keep up with the growth by improving the infrastructure to handle this increase. Unfortunately it hasn’t been doing so fast enough to adjust, so there is great frustration created. 

I am calling on the working population of Sedona to make this connection when you vote! Vote Yes on immediately improving Sedona’s roads to accommodate tourism. Vote Yes On Home Rule so the City has the money to fix the traffic problem. Vote No to cutting funding from the Chamber! It will be cutting the very branch you are sitting on!