Q: How do you balance short-term tourism-driven growth with long-term sustainable economic development?
Many small business owners would tell you that they can’t survive on local spend alone. It’s important that we work to offer them that balance so they can continue to help grow our economy. We have a sustainable tourism program; all advertising has our ‘stay and play responsibly’ message. We do this because we live here too, and don’t want people visiting our mountain town and messing up the trails, leaving a trace with their litter, and more. So, it’s vital to invite them, but it’s even more important to tell them how we want them to visit.
When it comes to economic development, we want tourism to thrive, but we also want to balance that sector. We don’t need hotel after hotel competing with one another, so we don’t chase industry that we already have here, but we don’t tell it to stay away either. We are always working with our partners to attract high wage, low impact businesses so that we can continue to offer the jobs our community deserves.
Q: Given that our economy is heavily reliant on tourism, what specific strategies does the city of Flagstaff use to diversify the economy?
We work with all sectors; bioscience, healthcare, astronomy, manufacturing, education, digital, transportation, and tourism to have a good mix of business. It’s important to be known for many things, not just one thing. The best rule of thumb in diversifying the economy is the fit. Is this going to be a good fit for our community? Will this industry bring quality jobs? Do we have the infrastructure required? And so on – if we can’t check the boxes, we take a pass. Our partnership with ECoNA is important because a potential business inquiry might not be a fit for Flagstaff, but it could go somewhere else and our city would still gain the economic impact of them shopping, dining, and more.
Q: What industries or sectors do you believe have the greatest potential for growth in Flagstaff?
I feel there are a lot of opinions on this, but digital seems to be something that can easily be here without a lot of burden on resources as they would bring resources we need. Also, many digital employees can fly in to do work and fly out at the end of the week to go home if that is a model that works for them which doesn’t require housing on our part. I also feel that manufacturing is necessary and if we have the land, building, or infrastructure it needs, that sector typically brings higher wage jobs which is crucial. I could go on, but I feel that we need to be open to all sectors and what they can do for us universally.
Check out the full interview here.
