Convention Business in Tucson

In my opinion, Tucson, Arizona is no longer in the Convention Business. In the 70's and 80s there were enough hotels of a smaller size, plus air service into the town to attract medium size groups into the city.
      "High-End" resorts such as Westin, Hilton and the like were years away. Downtown hotels: Marriott, Ramada and an ancient hotel that housed movie crews were primary for whatever convention business Tucson enjoyed.
      In the intervening years, everything has changed. The older hotels and motels have dried up, been levelled, bought out, converted to other purposes, and lost business to the newer Foothills resorts high up in the nearby Catalina Mountains.
      The Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau's influence over the new mega resorts waned over the years as single destination business meetings focused in on these resorts, and conventions dwindled away.
      Downtown hotels fell into new or old owners, disrepair, one was levelled, the Ramada switched owners a half dozen times and deteriorated. The Marriott switched tags so often it was common to see the sign comprised of a flag across the entrance, changed often.
      An indian tribe south of town opened a casino, made a ton of money, followed up with their own
"resort and convention hotel" and now compete more vigorously than the center city marketplace.
      Conclusions: in my opinion, downtown Tucson needs more convention hotels, and an updated Convention Center which has fallen into disrepair. Bring lawyers. Local infighting has persisted for decades, but once the decks are cleared, new, LARGER hotels are built, marketing power infused into the MTCVB, the downtown area will enjoy an infusion of new business, new conventions and revenue not realize by the Democratically controlled government short of Economic education.
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Sales and Marketing in the Hotel/Resort Business 21st Century

An old dog loves a new trick someone once said, and at this age, I tire of catching on to fast trains, the spin of the earth, dumb kids, machines that think for me, and children in suits that form personal relationships with green globes glowing in the corners of sales offices, easier than they do with me.
     As a fledgling salesman in my early 20's I learned by watching, listening and emulating those older, better than me and soon crafted a professional attitude that fed, clothed a wife, two daughters and myself through adulthood, and on, out of the house. The younger generation of sales and marketing people detached from any kind of personable connection to people attached themselves to techno babble, computers, gadgets, and roamed the world with eyes searching the world like bright, cole shiny headlights on oversized Buicks.
    In hotels, the difference was more obvious in that the more mature sales people were more expensive, higher salaries, commissions, bonuses, perks, and since they had been in the chairs longer, had earned respect not yet achieved by the yearlings.
    The youngers were mostly female, very good looking, cheaply bought, caught the eyes of management, knew little and were assigned for training to guys like me. Lots of guys like me.
    As the world turns, computers in, children love the gadgets, the technology of the new world began a new era in sales and marketing and the art of sales and marketing - personal contact, a connection with the customers of the hotel or resort - faded away.
    Comes the new change in our society - the Obama generation, he of the walking on water, things are going to change - and indeed they did. The economy tanks, corporate world recedes, sales staffs everywhere in everything get eviscerated (in hospitality especially) and the kids are back in restaurants serving pizza and spaghetti on shift work.
     Today, most of those glamorous hi-rise hotels, spiffy, tony resorts in the foothills are runny empty, missing their mortgage payments, having their "debts" re-organized, or out in the market looking for someone to buy them before they get re-possessed. They are ALL in trouble. Working in sales and marketing in the hospitality industry is as dead and/or dying as being in sales for the Airline industry. You can read about it in the history books.
     It was fun while it lasted. It's over
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The Future of Hotels - LOOK OUT !!

I started in this business back in the early 70's when it was practice to elevate restaurant waitresses into sales offices because they were pretty, wore short skirts and would drop brochures off at surrounding offices.

    Waitresses, God bless them, were offered substandard salaries, often harassed by their management, possessed little knowledge of the law, were abused and the turnover was high. 

    Since then, as the politicos say, we have "evolved." Marketing has been dragged out of college class rooms into hospitality, sales has been over taught in the hotel industry, and in the intervening years, staffs have grown, the science has increased the profits of the industry, and sometimes, under limited circumstance - the money generators responsible for the revenue, the sales people.

    Management has consistently considered sales people akin to the "rowers" in the hold following the drum beat. Metaphorically, when the captain sees the water level rising, the rowers will inevitably get thrown over the side, still attached to their chain.

    The Obama induced panic drive, Socialist economic slide toward oblivion we are now embracing as a nation, I fear has so ruined the economy, that the cyclical nature of the "hotel business" may be inextricably been wounded fatally. 

    The Halcyon days are gone. Thick sales staffs and their luscious expense accounts, travel budgets I believe are pared down forever. Here in Tucson, Arizona, a microcosm of reality, now, even the luxurious resorts, once touted as above the fray, are in deep trouble financially, and are up for sale at bargain prices. 

    Once Tauted Marriott resorts, Weston, and others, deeply nestled high in the mountains high over the city, are all flagging and losing money. When the ship goes down, the masthead is the last to slip below the waves. 

    These resorts are indeed the masthead. They will indeed draw a bargain price for some future owner albeit a bank, finance company or some foreign dignitary, Arab, or financier. 

    Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a career in the pretigious hospitality industry was a much sought after profession. To be a "hotelier" was fashionable, classical, and provided an excellent career. 

    Not now. Those days are gone, in my opinion. To work in the hospitality business, in any white collar capacity, one should have an attitude that the position is only temporary. Hold onto it while you are still seeking a more firm form of employment elsewhere, hopefully not in a hotel. And, never, never work for a "management" company - not ever. 

    If you are applying for a white collar job in a hotel or a resort, do your homework, check the backgrounds of the General Manager, the company who owns or runs it. Ask if they are attaining their budgets. If not, why not? If they don't answer you, run for the door. 

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Hotel Workers - victims of a Fuedal Empire

A recent Wall Street Journal article, and length one at that, outlined a lawsuit and an effort of the lowest paid hotel employees to unionize to upgrade their working conditions in their industry.
     Hotel workers aree behind the scenes, not often seen by the guest: dish washers laundry, mechanics, garden staff, pool maintenance, bar tenders, - I could bore one with the list. The larger the hotel or resort, the staff list grows.
     As I have said, Hospitality is the last feudal management system left in this modern day chauvanistic free-enterprise system. What the General Manager says, is law. Sure, there are federal, state and local laws, but I assure you,  they are cleverly broken, every day, in practically every lodging establishment in America by every titular head of the house.
     And, cleverly, too. I've seen it, heard it, been in the room, participated in Board meetings, watched it happen. As a former hotel and resort General Manager I never participated in any such nonsense, cooperated fully with my various staffs and enjoyed a wonderful working relations while I worked ALONGSIDE them during their various jobs.
     I hope and pray their hotel workers, the minimum wage job holders in that industry are successful in gaining a foot hold in struggle for recognition, fair play, fair PAY, and better working condition because they are NOT getting it now.
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