Tourism is the lifeblood of Sedona, but COVID-19’s tourniquet nearly cut that blood source off completely for more than two months.

However, in recent weeks there have been signs that the economy is beginning to improve.

“These are ‘unprecedented times,’” Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff said. “Those words have become a drum beat for communities worldwide. While the crisis we face can be described in no other way, our community and tourism industry have overcome unprecedented times before. Together we have rallied and recovered, and each time we emerged stronger.”

Wesselhoff went on to say, “We believe we have a plan that plays to our strengths, appeals to the demographic we want and will help Sedona recover more quickly than any other course of action available to the community or to the council.”

The chamber president appeared before the Sedona City Council on Wednesday, June 10, to discuss the chamber’s proposed $2.99 million budget request and its Destination Recovery Plan. No official action was taken on the chamber’s budget proposal. The final chamber budget is slated to be voted upon by council on Tuesday, June 23.

City Manager Justin Clifton said after the meeting that what he feels will happen is the chamber budget will be set near $2.59 million and the city will set aside an addi­tional $400,000 contin­gency in its budget in case they determine later that more marketing is needed to bolster the economic recovery. The bulk of that $400,000 will be destina­tion marketing funds in the fall and spring, which traditionally are periods that are not targeted by the chamber due to the high volume of visitors.

“What is important is that it is frozen in the city’s budget, not the chamber’s,” he said. “This is why I prefer the language that we budget a contingency that can be used for a supplemental award. The ‘frozen’ terminology is easily confused with what we are doing with our own budget where things can be unfrozen once the money is available. In the case of the chamber, it has nothing to do with availability, it has to do with need. That makes it more of a contingency than a simple freeze.”

Councilman John Currivan was the first to bring up the idea to freeze a portion of the chamber’s budget during the meeting. He said this would be similar to what will be seen in the city’s Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget. Certain line items will appear in the budget but funding will only occur when the money is available. This is because the city is bracing for a $10 million loss in tax revenues over a 15-month period.

“I’m wondering if we can apply that concept here,” Currivan said of applying the city’s method to the chamber. “In the spirit of belt tightening, that’s how we handled the belt tightening at the city level without completely cutting out all those items.”

Because air travel is still uncertain at this point, Wesselhoff said the chamber is focused on marketing to visitors who live within driving distance, specifically those in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. The presentation called for spending $105,000 in July, August and June of 2021, $75,000 a month in September through February [for Phoenix and Los Angeles marketing only] and $60,000 in both March and April for a total of $960,000.

While the chamber has long-term goals in mind, in the interim it’s looking to focus on several areas including the following:

Community & Business Services

– Assist businesses by mitigating impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and

– Sedona in Motion projects.

– Provide training and resources to help busi­nesses rebound.

Marketing & Communications

– Achieve pre-COVID-19 levels of visitor spending with a focus on mid-week and off-peak seasons.

– Position Sedona as a destination for arts, well­ness, outdoor adventure and sustainability and thus generate a sense of community pride.

– Conduct research for decision-making for the chamber and stakeholders.

– Execute the Sustainable Tourism Plan to improve the quality of life for residents, enrich the tourism experience and mitigate visitor impacts.

Group/Meeting and Travel Trade Industry Sales

– Position Sedona as a destination for small meet­ings and incentives.

– Position Sedona as a top leisure destination for national and international travelers through travel trade tour programs.

Visitor Services

– Provide the highest level of customer service at the Visitor Center.

– Maintain a trained, engaged and vibrant volun­teer core.

– Provide resources to visitors to support sustain­ability and stewardship efforts.

Wesselhoff said that as more states reopen, they will be marketing to the same visitors as Sedona is now, pointing out destina­tions such as California, Las Vegas, Park City, Utah, and even Flagstaff.

“The competition is really greater than we’ve had before because we’ve lost big segments of our market that our competi­tors are no longer going after like the group market and convention market,” she said.