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OPINION
SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | MAY 29, 2022
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Webinar shares importance of city’s tourism promotion BY RACHEL SACCO Progress Guest Writer
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s residents, we all enjoy the bene�its that come with living in a thriving resort destination – hotels, spas, museums, restaurants, golf courses and more. Yet we don’t always recognize the parts that keep this economic engine thrumming. I hope that will change June 16 when Experience Scottsdale and the city of Scottsdale host “A Look Inside Scottsdale’s Tourism Industry,” a webinar that will cover the mechanisms in place to keep Scottsdale’s tourism industry strong. This spring, Scottsdale saw visitors return to our community in numbers not seen since February 2020. Occupancy rates reached their highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic in March, and with rates strong, our hotels and resorts injected valuable bed tax dollars into our coffers. What brought these visitors to Scottsdale? For some, it was the allure of spe-
cial events like Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show and Cactus League spring training. Others may have booked Scottsdale through the guidance of a travel advisor. Many surely came here to enjoy our incredible spring weather that they perhaps read about in a magazine article or heard about in a news segment. The city of Scottsdale helps create and fund special events that bring so many to our community, while Experience Scottsdale keeps the destination in the spotlight. This longstanding partnership between the city and Experience Scottsdale, now going on 35 years, has made our local tourism industry the economic driver that is it today – an industry that employs thousands, plays host to millions and generates billions in economic impact. I hope you’ll join Experience Scottsdale and the city for “A Look Inside Scottsdale’s Tourism Industry” as we cover the ins and outs of our partnership that has proven so bene�icial to the industry and community at large.
During the webinar, you’ll get a glimpse of Experience Scottsdale’s advertising and promotions – those that so effectively attract visitors from around the globe yet are so rarely seen by residents. You’ll see the commercial that airs in markets like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and beyond. You’ll hear about the ways in which we train and educate thousands of travel advisors and tour operators to sell Scottsdale vacations. You’ll �ind out how we pitch stories about Scottsdale to generate positive media coverage in publications like AFAR, Travel + Leisure and The New York Times. And you’ll come away with an understanding of what it takes to book conferences, meetings and events in Scottsdale’s hotels and resorts. You’ll also learn how the money generated by visitors and meetings groups is funneled back into the community as the city invests visitor-paid sales tax dollars into important public services like police, �ire and transportation. Meanwhile, bed
tax dollars, those paid by visitors staying overnight at our hotels and resorts, are used to support, improve and grow tourism events and capital projects, from Canal Convergence to Scottsdale Stadium. As one the city’s largest partners since 1987, Experience Scottsdale feels a great responsibility to our community’s residents. Our organization takes great pride in our work, and I think you’ll be proud too once you witness all that goes into our tourism industry and tourism promotion. Over the course of an hour, representatives from Experience Scottsdale and the city of Scottsdale’s Tourism & Events department will cover all this and more. Visit ExperienceScottsdale.com/Community/Tourism-Industry-Webinar to register. If you would like additional information, please contact Experience Scottsdale Director of Community Affairs Stephanie Pressler at spressler@ experiencescottsdale.com. Editor’s Note: Rachel Sacco is the president and CEO of Experience Scottsdale.
will you? And last week an Uber driver asked about it. Her dad had served in Viet Nam but had come home safe. Physically safe, she emphasized, leaving the rest unsaid. The Bracelet isn’t jewelry. The now-battered band of stainless steel cost me $10 in 1969. I made money by babysitting for 50 cents per hour. All my classmates were buying them. I bought mine at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. Earnest, long-haired college students were there to sell us bracelets and tell us how important it was to wear them in support of POWs in Vietnam. My friends and I dug $10 from our bell bottoms and we made the solemn
promise: we’d “wear them ‘til they come home.” Our bracelets were shiny stainless steel then, and the black block letters engraved on them told us the name of a young American and the date he had been lost. Mine read: CAPT. JERRY ROE 2-12-68 At home that night, the television news showed young American soldiers �ighting a war, just like we saw every night at dinner. Walter Cronkite droned on about the day’s casualties. I didn’t really realize that meant dead soldiers just a couple of years older than me. My dad asked me about The Bracelet. I did my best to explain what it meant. I
told him about my promise. He looked at my mom and neither said anything. Did any of us high school students understand what our shiny new bracelets really meant? I didn’t. But now, more than 50 years later, I think I do. Mine meant that a young wife in Texas was left with a hole in her life. Was she a widow? She didn’t know. She hoped he would come home. A mom and a dad had lost a son – or had they? They hoped he would come home. Word spread through the friends that Jerry was missing. Was he ever coming home? They hoped so. Jerry had been born into a close-knit
Bracelet calls to mind Memorial Day’s meaning BY TRUDY THOMPSON SHUMAKER AFN Guest Writer
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lovely woman has helped me with my nail care for 15 years. She gently removes my wedding ring, then The Bracelet. She carefully places them in a pretty glass bowl. She is as careful with The Bracelet as she is with my wedding ring. It’s sturdy stainless steel, scratched and a little lopsided from years of wear. For more than 50 years, I’ve worn it. Nobody ever asks about it. Except for an observant paramedic once. I told her no, it’s not a medical alert bracelet. Just load me up and take me to the hospital,
��� BRACELET ���� 27
