The Sedona Chamber of Commerce’s Uptown Visitor Center will remain open following the Sedona City Council’s decision on April 9 to fund 80% of the center’s operations for the coming fiscal year given the possibility that the city could take over the property in the future.
Prior to its public meeting, the council held an executive session “for legal advice and consideration of the purchase of properties in the vicinity of [State Route] 89A and Forest Road for future Visitor Center use.”
“Our Visitor Center helps to inform decisions that are in Sedona’s best interests,” Chamber President and CEO Michelle Kostecki said. “By being welcoming, we have that much more ability to influence visitor behavior. Therefore, the Visitor Center really is a critical part of destination stewardship.”
The center averaged 600 visitors per day in March, and so far in April it had averaged 750 per day.
“We did see increases of 8% to 10% in January and February compared to January and February of last year,” Kostecki said. “The Uptown Visitor Center remains the second busiest in the state next to the Grand Canyon,” out of a total of 67 such centers statewide. Current walk-ins for the fiscal year through February were at 84,755, compared to the chamber’s goal of 150,000 for the full year.
Kostecki also addressed previous speculation from the dais that a brick-and-mortar visitor center could be replaced by kiosks around town, reminding council that the chamber had formerly used such a kiosk outside the Visitor Center. “Some folks were engaging with it, but then they would come up to the counter to validate what they were getting from the kiosk, so it didn’t really save time,” Kostecki said.
The chamber’s estimate for the cost of Visitor Center operations in fiscal year 2025 was $370,900, of which the city’s share at 80% would be $296,720, plus a management fee of 15%, for a total city contribution of $341,228.
“We have significantly reduced expenses,” Kostecki said, describing next year’s ask as “a savings of roughly $83,000 from this year’s budget … We just really, really scaled back in many ways.”
“This is a place to manage the destination,” Best Western co-owner Randy McGrane said during public comment. “To me, the location is critical if we have a Forest Road garage there … I strongly support continuing to fund the Visitor Center.”
“When you leave there, you are no longer a guest, you are almost like family,” mayoral candidate and former Vice Mayor John Martinez said. “It is very, very important to maintain this … if you lose this, you lose a very big thing.” He then asked the council to increase the Visitor Center funding to $500,000.
Sedona Lodging Council President Cheryl Barron similarly requested that the city fund 100% of Visitor Center operations and said that of 14 visitor centers around the state serving similar communities, 12 receive 100% of the bed tax collected in their communities. Barron added that as the city is not yet ready to run a visitor center, it needs to be funded “until the time the city can take it over.”
“I very passionately feel you should continue the Visitor Center, at least until you can replace it with something better, and that may never happen,” said Pete Sanders, a local tour business owner, who commented that he gets 40% of his customers from Visitor Center rack cards but has not yet gotten a single referral from the city’s Scenic Sedona tourism website. “Let’s not throw out what’s been working.”
“Kick it down the road another year and do some serious homework to figure out how the Visitor Center fits into the city’s master plan,” Al Comello said.
“The one thing that just troubles the heck out of me is the business community is not telling us they want the Visitor Center. They’re just not,” Councilman Brian Fultz said. “We’ve gotten more email from volunteers of the Visitor Center than we have businesses in the community … Why does the business community not tell us that this matters?”
“I really do think we’re kicking the can down the road,” Councilwoman Melissa Dunn said. “I don’t want us to keep kicking this can down the road … we need to have an understanding of what the right Visitor Center is for Sedona … we need to be aware of what it is people are really doing.”
“It’s probably a somewhat appropriate kick this year,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said. “We’re not yet far enough along to have really defined what we need … so kicking the can down the road is probably in order … I’m not comfortable with where things are but I don’t have a better option at the moment.”
“I don’t feel that the businesses have enough skin in the game,” Kinsella added.
“I think it’s what we need to do now,” Councilwoman Jessica Williamson said. “Kicking the can down the road would just not be doing anything.”
“I am absolutely convinced that the Visitor Center is well run,” Councilman Pete Furman said. “But here’s the thing that keeps tripping me up. We all recognize that 5% of our visitors are coming there. But you look at the visitor intercept data that we studied from our tourism bureau, 15% of the people that are here usually or always look for one. We’re getting a third of them into our Visitor Center. Something is not right. Something isn’t working … that speaks to me that our approach isn’t right … the future of the Visitor Center looks radically different.”
Furman added that of around a hundred people he talked to on the trails, five told him they had used the Visitor Center.
“You lost me when you came in with the building value allocation change,” Furman continued, referring to an adjustment the chamber had made to the value of the building in the proposed budget. “I just don’t like the concept of the fee.” The council eventually approved the contract for next year’s funding by a 6-1, with Furman opposed.
