My favorite DMO and destination with the best practice of sustainability
Located in the heart of a golden sea of sand, sits the beautiful and always warming Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix is the ideal tourist destination for tourist looking for once in a lifetime impressive views, mountainous adventures, relaxing rivers, cave exploration, mountain biking, and Arizona's top renown resorts and spas. Phoenix rich culture derives from its historical background of native Americans and wild west theme, making for as you would have suspected, quite a wild adventure.
Growing up in the Phoenix, I was always amazed over the sheer beauty and functionality of the city. With so many various segments of the city ranging from Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, and Chandler, it makes one whole HOT pizza.
The Phoenix DMO and VisitPhoenix have done an outstanding job of bringing in over 44 million people in 2018 while still being able to maintain the cities integrity and beauty.
Phoenix has been able to sustain its natural beauty by heavily focusing on its nature preservations in the forms of its state and national parks surrounding area. With groups like the Arizona Sustainability Alliance, funding has been used to keep the desert and mountains clean, and the roads and transportation ever running. With laws like A.R.S. 12-1603, it keeps waste management under control and reinforces what Wang discussed "enhancing the well-being of destination residents and preserving the natural capital of the destination for future generations” (Wang, 2011, p. 327), and the natural capital being the land around Phoenix.
The Best Practice of Sustainability
In my own experience, my father based his entire career in Arizona helping Solar Panel corporations across Phoenix expand their business and market their companies. In a matter of two years, while I worked alongside my father, we saw the number of solar panel companies triple in size in Phoenix, with many of them sharing with us that business was ON FIRE, much like its city. By my own count, there are more than 100+ Solar panel companies now in the town of Phoenix. By 2025, the city of Phoenix wants "15% of its energy for government use to come from renewable energy used from solar panels."- Phoenix Sustainability Council
The Link I have attached can show you on average the amount a family can save every year on solar panels alone, but where the benefit really comes is from large businesses using them to save cost on energy and by the government using them as well. For every 2,500 sqft, it saves 10,0000 over 20 years. That may seem like a small amount but if every company did it plus the solar fields a great deal could be saved and help save the environment as well.
Why is this the best practice?
I think by now with my many puns on the heat in Phoenix is safe to say its a dry heat. Meaning, Phoenix and Arizona itself see very little rain throughout the entire year, with it raining only 3 months out of the whole year with very few clouds. So it doesn't take to much just to see why solar panels are such an ideal commodity to use over a long period. As you can tell below many companies, have already transitioned to solar power.
As someone very familiar with the solar panel business, in terms of sustainability in general, the city of Phoenix wants to be economical fit to power its city with air conditioning cost in schools, hospitals, and much more where the price is incredibly high. The school systems in Arizona believe it or not save money on schools being year round due to not having to turn the Air Conditioning units off, costing the school's thousands each year. It needs to be a joint effort as the Morrison discussed "it is not one organization that is in charge of encouraging more sustainable practices (Morrison, 2013, p.182).
And making sure the city can still be eco-friendly as it has always been. Phoenix culture comes from the basis of Native American civilization which values the land that the town of Phoenix sits on, and as its land valued over a 100 years ago, those values of preservation still stand today. The native American tribes as well as benefit greatly from tourist visiting their properties and paying to enter their parks and many of their casinos on their reservations where gambling is legal.
However, it is important that the citizens of Phoenix are with the DMO on the importance of Solar panels before spending tax dollars on them, as Morrison stated in the reading "The importance of community support for the tourism industry cannot be understated” (Wang, Pizam 2011 p. 284).
However, it is important that the citizens of Phoenix are with the DMO on the importance of Solar panels before spending tax dollars on them, as Morrison stated in the reading "The importance of community support for the tourism industry cannot be understated” (Wang, Pizam 2011 p. 284).
Benefits and Consequences for Consumers
Some of the benefits for consumers are that the parks and landscapes in Phoenix have been kept up very well, and safety precautions due to a great deal of funding of these operations of waste management, green energy. Consumers can also take a great deal of pride into knowing the money they spend is going back into the environment as well and going in conservation with so many of the outdoor locations focused on putting money back in. However, some of the consequences of this come in the form of payment. You truly get what you pay for, often many of the parks and recreational areas are not free. In terms of rivers, mountain ranges, and parking it usually costs anywhere from $10-20 per car to go to some of these sites, which to some consumers may seem strange. Some other negatives being that the rules on the reservation casinos are often times different and even more strict than most resorts in Phoenix. The use of towels is restricted, along with towels and not recycling is a bit frowned upon due to the cultural views of the city.
Benefits and consequences for the destination, tourism industry, and the local residents
The city of Phoenix, tourism industry and local residents all benefit massively from the Green moment in terms of the use of solar panels. However, where there is a great deal of controversy is in Phoenix water usage laws and regulations.
Arizona and the city of Phoenix have avoided recently any new regulation on water conservation, but it seems however very soon that will change. In the past, new housing developments before opening had to have at least 100 years of water in their acquirers in case of a drought, but now with such significant expansion those 1978 rules cant stand on their own. It would seem logical in such a large city with the 5th largest population and highest overall average temperature to have some of the largest water parks? Well think again, believe it or not, one of Phoenix largest water parks was actually shut down. This profoundly hurts the tourism industry with already such a hot location keeping some tourist away. The average tourist from VisitPhoenix is around 45 years old and closer to retirement, which the state is also known for.
Soon with the potential of more significant impacts of global warmer, the state will continue to dry up, and regulations will have to be put into place, and as this benefits the environmental tourism aspect, this will hurt many of Phoenix top-notch resorts and already crumbling water parks. With one hand the immense heat gives tremendous renewable energy to the solar panels but on the other drains the very land of its natural water, making for a challenging problem and solution. Phoenix itself gets 36% of its water from the Colorado River and sharing with Tucson, stated by the city of Phoenix (Phoenix, 2016).
If droughts continue, Phoneix will have to as Morrison stated asked itself "Where are we now? Where do we want to be? And How do we get there"(Morrsion, 2013, p. 80) In terms of the citizens of Phoenix themselves, these green movements of water reaction have caused many citizens to drain their pools and turn in their grass lawns for gravel lawns, an ongoing and unappealing alternative to many residents in the Phoenix area who have in the past not had to sacrifice such minor things. So where some of these regulations may help the overall aesthetic of the city and its natural habitat, it will as well cause a bit of distress within the citizens themselves I can promise.
How can this best practice be encouraged for other DMOs
Neighboring DMOs with Similar climates and amenities must work together to be able to sustain tourist arrivals and to sustain the very survival of its cities natural environments. In terms of the west coast, it is very much so a life and death situation when it comes to the natural habitats and firefighters themselves. States like Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and California could be much stronger if their DMOS were to Unite under possibly a name like "The Wild West United," something to that effect focusing on green tourism and sustainability. In the reading, Wang states two or more of them can collectively achieve more than the sum of each individual’s own efforts” (Wang, 2011, p.260).
I believe for the safety overall sustainability of all DMOs it is vital to stress the need for environmental conservation because without the environment we have no legs to stand on. Every DMO needs their environment and depends upon the agriculture of its own state or another, and if one agriculture state starts to crumble, it will begin to affect the cost associated to all its buyers and consumers affected the entire market. So unless these implantations of water conservation, Renewable energy, and waste management are implemented in all DMOS, the country itself may collapse. As its been said man times, you are only as strong as our weakest link, and if one aspect whether it be food supply, lodging, energy, transportation, etc. begins to fail, it will indefinably affect the others in some way.
The organization that should be in charge of encouraging more sustainable practices by DMOs
The Organizations that must be involved in promoting these vital sustainable practices must come from not only the local governments but the large domestic corporations, stakeholders must be accountable as discussed in our reading "destination management is not only in the hands of the DMO but also requires effort by other stakeholders within the destination and partners in other places” (Morrison, 2013, p. 16). I profoundly believe that if these large corporations see the benefits that they can have in pro-environment and environment sensitive cities and state, it will have an effect on the entire industry and companies will transition to a greener and more environmentally friendly tactics.
Phoenix has done a great job over the years of promoting green businesses and tourism with the Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce. This community focuses on educating the industry on the importance of going green and also highlights the success of green organizations. One of the top green business in Phoenix at the moment is Arizona State University. This is great for the city and the students who can chare the green business culture globally and national as they begin their careers with various companies. So, I believe it essential for our educators as well to educate the students on how critical it is that business become more sustainable not only for their business sake but for the cities and environments sake.
As well, typically these tourist location like many of the resorts and Spas or national parks are the ones who demand the most resources and often have the most traffic to them and as stated in the reading “the industry still has the potential to cause significant environmental damage because it is often developed in areas that have attractive but fragile environments. Also, with tourism, there is a greater demand for water, energy, food, raw materials, and land" (Pizam, 2011, P. 286). This is no doubt the exact type of environment that Phoenix holds, and it's crucial that business and the tourism industry of Phoenix understand that, as well as the citizens.
If I were in charge of this organization, strategies, tactics, and actions that I would use to encourage more sustainability
In the chance, I was to be in charge of this organization I would from the very start make sure that anything and everything is being done to keep the city of Phoenix Sustainable. As far as Lodging and Transportation I know the city has had little problem in those sectors but where it continues to struggle is in the maintenance of its environments. I believe that before large corporations come into Phoenix looking to soak up land for their business that it is the DMO's and local governments job to emphasize as Morrison stated " long-term sustainability of natural, social, heritage, and cultural resources” (Morrison, 2013, p.63).
My role in supporting and improving the sustainability of tourism destinations as a consumer and/or industry practitioner
My role I believe is to inform and educate others of the importance of sustainability and to be a social advocate for change and durability of these destinations. In my career alone, it will be crucial for me to educate whatever company I work for on the importance of keeping not only the city but the company sustainable with growth. More importantly, as Morrison stated to provide "significant positive word-of-mouth for a destination" (Morrison, 2013, p. 387). If the city of Phoenix continues this massive influx of arrivals and doesn't continue to push a more environmentally friendly city, it may just end up much like Thneed-ville home of the Truffula Trees.
References
Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://azgreenchamber.org/
Historical Population & Water Use. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.phoenix.gov/waterservices/resourcesconservation/yourwater/historicaluse
Mission. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.azsustainabilityalliance.com/mission/
Morrison, A.M (2013). Marketing and Managing Tourism Destinations. Abingdon: Routledge.
Photos & Videos. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.visitphoenix.com/media/photos-videos/
Sustainability. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.visitarizona.com/sustainability
Photos & Videos. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.visitphoenix.com/media/photos-videos/
Sustainability. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.visitarizona.com/sustainability
Wang, Y. and Pizam A. (Eds.) (2011). Destination Marketing and Management-Theories and Applications. CAB International.
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