Virtual Arizona Governor's Conference on Tourism was successfully organized

July 24, 2020 - Congratulations to Arizona Office of Tourism and its partners for successfully organizing the virtual Arizona Governor's Conference on Tourism (AGCOT, https://azgcot.com/) on July 22-23, 2020! This is an annual premier educational and networking event in the state for travel professionals and destination marketers. Our graduate student alumni – Kari Roberg and Lena Allen are the research staff that work with data providers to estimate figures for the conference.

Here are some highlights from the conference. The highlights include both the sharing of 2019 results which were a peak of Arizona travel statistics AND our 2020 current conditions and the monumental challenges the industry and communities face.
• 2019 was a successful year for Arizona tourism with some record-breaking data: 46.8 million total overnight visitors, $25.6 billion in direct travel spending, 194,300 industry-related jobs directly generated by travel spending. Many of these jobs held by ASU graduates!

• In 2020, the industry has been suffered significantly due the coronavirus pandemic: The industry currently estimates a lost $7 billion in travel spending, 50 percent of the industry jobs, and $312 million in lost tax revenues.
• Leave No Trace Partnership: Seven key principles of Leave No Trace program will be modified for Arizona (https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/)
• Arizona Tourism Strategic Recovery Plan: The plan has been created and available at: https://tourism.az.gov/…/AOT-Destination-Recovery-Plan-Spre…
• Moving Forward into 2021: Consumer sentiment and public health will help drive marketing decisions. Rediscover Arizona will be AOT’s primary marketing campaign.

The conference featured CST’s study to assess local residents’ opinions about tourism development in Arizona. The study was developed into the thesis of a Master’s student at ASU, Casey Moran.

In alignment with the conference’s focus on Leave No Trace (LNT) initiatives, CST is proud that we have been testing the relevance of LNT program for several years through our research activities. LNT was part of studying mindfulness, the focus of CST’s research assistant Maya Azzi’s thesis. This thesis laid the groundwork for later work with Sedona on their sustainable tourism plan and Kim Pham’s doctoral dissertation research. Following CST’s research findings, Sedona tourism office and community developed a comprehensive Leave No Trace plan to keep the destination clean. The plan has been implemented and monitored since 2018: https://sedonachamber.com/leave-no-trace/

In this unprecedented time, CST Director Christine Vogt has been actively participating in professional webinars and conferences about the impacts of Covid-19 to the tourism industry to bring that knowledge to the Center, faculty, graduate students and our fall courses. AGCOT is one of them. Kudos to Dr. Vogt!