Tucson: A Meeting Planner’s Go-To Destination
By Stella Johnson
If you’re reading this, you are probably a corporate or association meeting planner; as such, you need to know what’s happening in Tucson right now and why it must be the host city of your next meet-up.
For instance, this “Gem of the Sonoran Desert,” as Tucson is sometimes referred to, is a short distance from the Tucson International Airport, which has an ever-increasing number of nonstop flights to and from dozens of U.S. cities. Also, the Tucson Convention Center is located in a dynamic downtown area and easy to get to. The good news is that it just completed a $110-million-dollar renovation that includes extra space and state-of-the-art technological advancements.
Also, UNESCO has named Tucson a City of Gastronomy, with dozens of ethnic-inspired restaurants that represent various groups of people who have settled here over several thousand years. This is great for conference-goers with food on their minds and also provides many options for nighttime activities.
Moreover, Tucson never runs out of “things to do,” which will engage, entertain and enlighten your group members. To help showcase them all, meeting and event planners should consult the city’s Southern Arizona Attractions Alliance (SAAA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting its regional attractions. So many of the Alliance’s recommendations are located around the convention center complex, too, including the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Flandrau Science Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Children’s Museum of Tucson, Rocks & Ropes of Tucson, the Philabaum Glass Gallery, the Arizona Theatre Co., the Santa Rosa Recreation Center and Park, and the Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center for an exhibit inside a historic synagogue, among many other options.
One of the newest attractions is the University of Arizona’s Alphie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum. This collection is worldwide in scope but specifically emphasizes minerals from Arizona and Mexico.
Then, there is Tucson’s extraordinary outdoors, which contains many refreshing and mind-blowing experiences in a fascinating setting of golden desert sand, majestic mountain ranges, and a rising or setting sun that gloriously emblazons the sky. Most visitors and attendees don’t leave Tucson until they have hiked, biked, rock climbed, walked, or at least traveled in an open-air vehicle through one of Tucson’s many exquisite parks or beautiful outer regions surrounding the city.
To get a handle on things and a good price, meeting, and event planners would be wise to inquire about special savings for groups through the aforementioned Alliance group and the city’s DMO, Visit Tucson. Here, planners are bound to find a mellow but can-do attitude to assist any size group.
I’m so fascinated with Tucson and you will be, too, once you read F&D’s cover story in our 2024 SuperBook issue due to come out this month. Look for it in your mail or online: www.facilitiesonline.com.
For more information, visit www.visittucson.org, www.tusconconventioncenter.com, and www.tucsonpassport.com.
