Tactic B3.1
Benefits of Tourism
Expand communication with Sedona residents focusing on benefits and impacts of tourism and available resources.
Survey results show many Sedona residents are disconnected with Sedona’s visitor industry and the steps the industry takes to enhance the economy and residents’ quality of life. This tactic expands communication with residents, ensuring they are aware of tourism’s beneficial impacts and the actions taken to mitigate the challenging impacts of tourism. A range of communications platforms can be used to maximize connection with residents.
IMPACTED PILLARS
TIMEFRAME Short-term (12-18 months)
LEAD PARTNERS City of Sedona, SCC&TB
SUPPORTING PARTNERS Sedona Businesses, Local Media
ALIGNING RESEARCH Resident Survey, Business Survey, Nonprofit Focus Group, Local Input
TARGET / STATUS TO DATE FY21
1. Number of industry outreach efforts - TARGET = 5 / STATUS = 5
2. Benchmark through resident survey
PROGRESS TO DATE
Expand Communication with Sedona Residents
Expand communication with Sedona residents focusing on benefits and impacts of tourism and available resources.
The SCC&TB continues its extensive communications to residents through its myriad of channels (eNewsletters, print advertising, Facebook ads, websites, social media, blog posts, Red Rock News articles, signage). The topic varies based on the current environment.
The SCC&TB also instituted an online blog version of teach Friday’s Red Rock News column on topics of interest to community residents and promoted those blogs on its local Facebook site.
Beginning in June 2021, the SCC&TB began a monthly column in The Villager and Verde Independent to expand communications with regional residents. Monthly full-page ads in The Villager are another newly instituted method to expand the SCC&TB communication outreach. This complements the SCC&TB’s regular ads in the Red Rock News and Kudos.
The SCC&TB is continuing its partnership with Yavapai Broadcasting to produce regular radio spots with increased frequency that promote topics of public interest, such as sustainability and tourism management.
FY21 & FY20: The SCC&TB continues extensive communications to residents through its myriad platforms. Dozens of the 52 Red Rock News articles that appear each year (and associated blog posts) focus on tourism impacts, benefits, sustainability issues, resident engagement opportunities, transportation as it relates to tourism, business sustainability as it relates to tourism, tactics such as crowd dispersal, trail maintenance and visitor outreach.
The SCC&TB eNewsletters frequently recreate the focus of these articles and/or link to them so that readers have easy access.
Print ads, Facebook ads, multiple websites, social media and signage routinely deliver tourism-related messages, including challenges raised by a tourism-based economy and the possible solutions. The specific topic varies based on the current environment.
Since March 2020, much of our current communications centered around COVID-19 as it relates to resident safety and tourism. Our Sedona | Safe.Clean.Ready marketing plan launched locally in May 2020 engaged almost 300 businesses in adopting CDC specific guidelines that included visitor education signage, including at hotels and resorts. We also communicated regularly through all local platforms our aggressive outreach to visitors to assure residents we were making a maximum effort to contact, inform and educate visitors and potential visitors on COVID safety precautions and Sedona’s mask mandate.