You’ve heard of Geotourism, now Visit Tucson is introducing Ideotourism. Visit Tucson presented the concept, which focuses on tourists with a progressive ideology, to the Tucson City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The Pima County Board approved spending nearly $3.3 million on Visit Tucson’s marketing plan for the Fiscal Year 2013 to 2014. The plan is designed to promote Ideotourism, business travel, film production and sports development.
Potential visitors across the country will be sold on the concept that Tucson is a “liberal college town” with “open minds.” The 39 slide PowerPoint presentation shown to the Tucson City Council on Tuesday notes, “We get a lot of credit for being a progressive city in a conservative state.”
Visit Tucson is currently working on projects that will support Pima County attractions, including the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Old Tucson Studios, the Pima Air and Space Museum and the Titan Missile Museum. It is unlikely, however, that liberals will enjoy either the Pima Air Museum, which features primarily war craft, or the Titan Missile Museum, which features a missile silo.
Pima County Manager Chuck Huckelberry said, “Revitalizing tourism is directly related to our economic well-being, and we have backed that conviction up with public funding.”
Supervisor Ally Miller told a Tucson radio audience that she had concerns that the marketing plan might narrow the pool of possible tourists. “It concerns me greatly that we are moving to promote our community in idealogical terms…progressive vs. conservative. This merely causes division and will narrow the market for those willing to come to our town. We need to stay focused on inclusive messaging vs. ideology based messaging which doesn’t belong in this equation.”
Miller had not been shown the presentation before it was put before the Board for a vote.
Residents agree with Miller’s sentiment that a dollar from an individual with conservative values spends just the same as a dollar from those with progressive values.
While Tucson has been the home of the world famous Gem and Mineral Show, Geotourism took a back seat. Visit Tucson plans to invest $20,000 this fiscal year to support local geo-tourism.
Despite the fact that the legislature did not pass a film tax credit this year and is unlikely to pass one in the near future, Visit Tucson plans to create a regional incentive program to attract feature films, television series and commercials.
To view the Visit Tucson power point presentation click here.