On March 11, Sedona City Council took a positive step towards funding the Uptown Visitor Centre at 80% of its costs and costs for the second consecutive year to repair relationships between the business community and workers.
The Sedona Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors decided in April 2023 not to seek a service agreement to use bed tax in 2023. The intense divorce between the city and the subsequent chamber of commerce seemed irreparably undermined the long-standing partnership between the city of Sedona and the nonprofit business cooperative, but many of the business community helped remove urban surveillance for private, nonprofit businesses. After all, their missions are out of sync. The city uses our taxes to serve all residents, and the Chamber of Commerce supports membership businesses and workers by promoting commercial provision to residents and visitors. The Chamber of Commerce survives when businesses are successful in their efforts, staying in business, maintaining membership, and supporting the Chamber of Commerce’s marketing efforts. Whether it is targeting residents such as home repairs or services, it is targeted at tourists such as hotel stays or tours. The city survives by maintaining its population and collecting revenue from sales tax. With over 75% of that being paid by tourists, our residents do not need property taxes to pay for roads, facilities and police protection.
As we reported, the Visitor Center’s proposed FY26 contract brought the center’s budget to $439,300. To be clear, residents will not pay bed tax. Bed taxes are billed to tourists staying at accommodations that are at the limits of the city. Therefore, this money is not paid by “us”, residents, visitors, but by the money. The agreement also gave the city the option to renew FY27 for $358,892.
Uptown Stretch is the first thing you think about for most visitors when asked about Sedona’s economic centre, or at least Sedona’s commercial sector. The Visitor Centre is a facility perched on a hill overlooking the gateway to Uptown on Forest Road, a landmark that anchors the area, and a pivot point where all visitors turn left on that road to find parking are searching for visitors as they arrive in the commercial corridor.
For many visitors, especially international tourists, who seek direct advice when visiting a new town, it is the first place they will stop. It is also a convenient gathering point for separate visitors and carpools to meet, even if you don’t have to step inside the building.
The council did the right thing by supporting the contract with a 4-3 vote in 2024 and unanimously supporting the visitor center contract this year.
Having met with David Key, the Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, the Chamber of Commerce believes the Chamber will work with the city and its residents to completely repair the relationship after recent pre-employment discomfort. We praise the Council for supporting the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitor Centre.
What’s a little more suspicious is the plan to set up a kiosk in Uptown to manage tourism behavior. The concept is healthy on the face, but the goal is not. An information kiosk is great for viewing information about localized areas for visitors, such as finding specific businesses that can’t find parking or mapping parking lots, but searching for the Seven Canyon Area Trail is not something you do when you have ice cream and shopping bags. That’s the purpose of smartphones.
Tourists who come to Sedona to hike to difficult-to-locate locations like the Boynton Canyon Whirlpool, Cathedral Rocks and Demon Bridges, or the Wind Cave and the Secret Slick Rock Trail were already searching for these sites before they arrived.
Facebook’s largest Sedona Tourism page has 349,600 active members as of March 26th. These users are asking other tourists and residents how to reach certain trails. Some users post the entire itinerary to ask for advice.
Regardless of the city’s goal of keeping tourists away from popular places, people will find a way to the spots they saw on social media. That’s how the unmarked “Subway Caves” has become Sedona’s latest must-see location. The long Sedona hike is not something that visitors plan on on the spot after lunch in Uptown. This is the destination I mapped before arriving at the hotel.
Most people know they’re waiting for an hour at Devil’s Bridge to take a photo while pretending there’s no one in line behind the photographer. If the city persuades every trail to block that trail map for hours, Reddit, hundreds of other apps, static websites, and physical maps will use hikers to get coveted Instagram photos on the bridge, just like 1,000 people that morning.
Ultimately, kiosks help visitors replicate what their smartphones can do, but rarely changes the way tourists plan their visits.
