The Daily Agenda: Oro Valley goes its own way
The town cut ties with Visit Tucson … They’re going to be their own tourism ambassadors … UA faculty upset over new provost.
It’s the last week of classes at the UA, which means we’ll soon be parting ways with our Jamieson-Metcalf Scholars, Sam Parker and Liv Leonard, and our social and multimedia intern, Desarae Tucker. We appreciate their hard work this semester and the talent and perspectives they brought to the Tucson Agenda.
Please enjoy Sam’s final story today and keep an eye out for Liv’s last story, which will run later this week.
Oro Valley ended its partnership with Visit Tucson, saying they’d get a bigger bang for their buck if the town was in charge of bringing in tourists.
Oro Valley was paying Visit Tucson $410,000 annually to promote the town’s attractions, but City Manager Jeff Wilkins ended the agreement at the end of March. Town staff checked whether the town was getting a good return on investment for those dollars and concluded it would be best for Oro Valley to end the partnership.
Visit Tucson is a nonprofit organization that works to draw groups to different regions in the greater Tucson area. They highlight local cuisine, casinos, and other attractions to bring in tourist dollars.
Wilkins told the council at their April 17 meeting that in both meeting-room bookings and sports-room bookings, Visit Tucson fell short of initial goals and town staff believed Oro Valley would have an advantage over Visit Tucson in these areas.
Now, the town is expecting to spend $522,000 annually on its own marketing.
Several town council members pointed to Marana as a model for going it alone on tourism. Marana separated from Visit Tucson about a decade ago.
“I’m fully in support of giving [Community and Economic Development Director] Mr. Paul Melcher the opportunity to do what they do in Marana,” Councilman Timothy Bohen said. “There’s a site called Discover Marana and they are a part of the Tucson metro area and things are booming in Marana. If Marana was having so much difficulty going on their own, I think they’d be back with Visit Tucson.”
Vice Mayor Melanie Barrett agreed with Bohen, and also proposed future partnerships with the neighboring jurisdiction.
“I think the idea is that we would do similarly to Marana and maybe in potential places partner with Marana,” Barrett said. “And Marana left Visit Tucson 10 years ago and my understanding is that they have been content with that decision.”
The fact that the town manager decided to end the agreement with Visit Tucson without approval from the council, despite the partnership being a council budget item, didn’t sit well with Council member Steve Solomon. Any changes to budget items should go through the council, he said.
“I’m not saying that anyone did anything wrong, but if council approves a budget that includes a specific amount of money for a specific organization, or item, for that whole year, I don’t understand how that’s not carried out through the year,” Solomon said.
Leaders from the two resorts in Oro Valley that previously had memberships with Visit Tucson expressed concern about the town’s decision.
Shelby Francom, the general manager of the Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Oro Valley, told the council that “the partnership with Visit Tucson is critical to continued success” and “the value of the partnership goes far beyond whatever dollar-for-dollar metric has been conveyed.”
According to Wilkins’ presentation, the $410,000 the town spent on Visit Tucson translated to an economic impact for the town of more than $10 million in fiscal 2023.
John Ault, the general manager of the Westward Look resort in Oro Valley, also pushed back on the town’s choice to end the partnership with Visit Tucson.
“I’m excited that there’s a change, that we want to move forward as a town, but maybe it’s not the right time to do that, because the infrastructure is not set up just yet,” Ault said.
Solomon, who requested the agenda item, agreed that the town was not prepared to handle its own marketing plan without the support of Visit Tucson.
“There is nothing functioning here. There’s no website, we don’t have the expertise on staff, we don’t have the experience and we don’t have nearly the financial capability that Visit Tucson has,” Solomon said.
Rather than cut ties with Visit Tucson, the town could have taken the next year to prepare, Solomon said. Instead, the “short-sighted” decision to end the partnership could cause “irreparable harm to our community and our economy.”
Melcher said in his presentation that the town’s Destination Marketing Organization Strategy would replicate Visit Tucson’s work in prospecting opportunities and finding leads, as well as marketing the town and increasing client support.
Melcher said the town will initially focus attention on a group booking strategy and then move into leisure and transient travel. Town staff have been holding biweekly meetings with the resorts to develop a strategy and determine how to replicate the benefits that Visit Tucson provided.
Beginning April 1, the 30-day goals for the DMO plan include launching the “Explore OV” webpage and continuing to meet with resorts to fine-tune a group booking strategy.
Over in Marana, where town officials separated from Visit Tucson a decade ago, Stefanie Boe, tourism and marketing manager for Discover Marana, said the tourism business is doing well there and they’ve enjoyed “owning and telling our own story and what makes us uniquely different.”
Teens take on the issues: Sixty-five high school students from 10 schools in four districts participated in the Metropolitan Education Commission’s 29th annual Teen Town Hall this spring, the Arizona Daily Star’s Jessica Votipka reports. Students discussed societal issues determined by members of the Youth Advisory Council of the Metropolitan Education Commission, including mental health, substance abuse, civic engagement, climate change and more.
No trespassing: Arizona State University police arrested 69 people Saturday at the Tempe campus, after they set up an encampment in support of Palestinians, KJZZ’s Kirsten Dorman and Kathy Ritchie report. The arrests came amidst days of protests in solidarity with Gaza and the Palestinian community at colleges across the U.S., with many schools building encampments. A similar protest took place at the University of Arizona Thursday, although students did not set up encampments. ASU police said in a statement that encampments are prohibited on school property and the group had been told multiple times to disperse.
Meanwhile, at the UA: Despite opposition from more than 100 faculty members, the UA has named former University of Florida administrator Joseph Glover as its new provost, the Tucson Sentinel’s Dylan Smith writes. A group of UA department heads had previously sent President Robert C. Robbins, members of the Arizona Board of Regents and provost search committee a letter expressing disapproval of Glover, saying he has a record of not being very effective in engaging faculty in shared governance. Glover will begin his new role on July 1.
Happy trails: Pima County officials quietly shut down the Campbell Trail and Trailhead earlier this month, tearing out the paved parking lot and blocking the entrance, the Star’s Henry Brean writes. The trail was one of nine leading into the Santa Catalina Mountains as part of a trail access plan adopted by the board of supervisors nearly 50 years ago. Officials say the half-mile Campbell Trail leading north into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area was decommissioned because it did not connect to any established U.S. Forest Service Trails and didn’t meet the county’s standards for safety and accessibility.
Know your rights: Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes launched a new website clarifying Arizona’s abortion landscape, Arizona Public Media’s Paola Rodriguez writes. The site says that it will be updated if access changes, but without any legislative changes, abortions will be almost entirely outlawed after June 8. The website includes information about where to find a provider and a page detailing Arizona’s law regulating abortions and privacy.
More UA happenings: More than 600 people attended an online all-faculty meeting Thursday, where UA faculty leaders introduced referendums that include demanding delays to layoffs and reducing central and senior administration positions, the Arizona Luminaria’s Carolina Cuellar reports. Faculty has one to vote on the proposals, which also include demanding the resignation of John Arnold, the UA’s Interim-CFO and ABOR’s executive director, who is on leave while he works with the UA.
We want to hear from you! Come meet our new part-time reporter, Susan Barnett, this Friday from noon to 3 p.m. at American Eat Co. (1439 S. 4th Ave.) Susan will be reporting on the upcoming election through the lens of Hispanic voters and wants to hear from community members about the issues and races they think are most impactful.
Come meet Susan, share your thoughts and take home a Tucson Agenda sticker or bookmark! And if you can’t make it Friday, we’ll have a second listening session, later in the day on Monday, May 6th. Time and location TBA.
 | A guest post by
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The ABOR says it wants to listen to others regarding the hiring of U of A executives. But faculty, staff and students have spoken out in numerous ways including published opinion pieces. Even retired U of A President Schaefer wrote an opinion piece about it and pointed out the lunacy of hiring a new provost before the new president is hired.
The Arizona Board of Regents is clearly demonstrating that they are in charge and that the privileged wealthy are who they listen to, and that democracy and shared governance are obstacles to their power and control of Arizona's public universities.