To promote or not to promote. That is the question. It’s one the Sedona Chamber of Commerce and the Sedona City Council have been asking the last few years when trying to find that sweet spot in terms of tourism and the number of visitors coming to Sedona. 

It again came up on Tuesday, June 25, as council was being asked to approve the chamber’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It did so by a 5-2 vote with Councilmen John Currivan and Bill Chisholm voting against it. 

Chisholm did so because he was looking for a reduction in the chamber’s marketing budget while Currivan has concerns that some of the chamber’s contractual performance standard goals may not be consistent with the city’s desire for tourism to stay flat. 

Chisholm said he understands the importance of tourism and the amount of money that it brings to the city and by doing so affords residents many amenities that may not be available in other communities the same size. It also means that there is no city residential property tax. 

Chisholm also acknowledged the current construction in Uptown and Oak Creek Canyon, as well as concerns of a potential nationwide economic downturn. And in talking with merchants, as well those surveyed in the Sustainable Tourism Plan, he realizes the need to promote tourism to avoid risking those visitors going elsewhere. That said, he feels cuts should be made. 

“I took all this input and formed an opinion that the amount of money the Sedona Chamber of Commerce’s FY 2020 Destination Services Plan allocated to the quality of the economy, also known as advertising and marketing, can and should be reduced to honor the ‘maintain’ mandate,” he said. 

He suggested a “modest” reduction of 16%, which would equate to $189,000 from the advertising and marketing of Sedona throughout the country. This equates to the Fiscal Year 2016 numbers allotted to the chamber by the city, adjusted for inflation. 

At a January joint meeting between the council and the chamber board of directors, the parties agreed to submit and consider a budget that is built from the ground up rather than built from the estimated 55% of bed tax. It’s also designed to sustain but not to grow existing levels of tourism. 

Then in late April, council generally expressed support for the chamber’s proposed upcoming budget of $2,492,500. This is $130,500 less than the projected 55% of bed tax for FY20. The $2,492,500 draft budget represents a $316,100 increase from the current of $2,176,400, which was also reduced from the estimated 55% of bed tax for that year. 

“SCC&TB proposed allocating $1,179,950 of the total budget to attracting tourists — generally captured in the quality of the economy program,” a city report states. “Perhaps the most difficult task is speculating about whether the dollars allocated to that program need to be sustained, increased or reduced to accomplish sustaining, but not growing, existing levels of tourism. While there is strong evidence of the positive impact SCC&TB marketing efforts have had on economic growth, it is not clear exactly how small adjustments might impact things.” 

Vice Mayor John Martinez said he’s opposed to cutting the chamber budget. 

“We have some heavy construction going on in Uptown [from Sedona in Motion road construction], so we need to bring the people in here,” he said. “We need to spend money to make money. There’s no way I’d be able to support a reduction for the 2019-20 budget for the chamber of commerce. We can look at it next year but this year we need to keep it the same.” 

Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com