06 11 26 WSS TEMPE TOURISM PRESENTATION.PDF

June 11, 2026
Tempe Tourism Office
Michael Martin, President & CEO
Tempe City Council Upda
1

Organizational Recap
• Tempe Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc. (dba: Tempe Tourism)
⚬Created in 1988 to promote Tempe as a leisure and business 
travel destination
⚬Office: 140 S. Ash Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85821
• Annual Budget
⚬City of Tempe Bed Tax (
6 year  renewable contract)
⚬Prop 302 (Maricopa County Hotel & Car Rental Tax)
⚬Advertising and Cooperative Funds from the Private Sector
• Staff = 12
• Board of Directors = 20
• Mission:  
⚬Fostering Tempe’s economic growth by inspiring travelers to 
visit and explore our city.
• Vision:  
⚬To establish Tempe as a travel destination where every visitor 
feels inspired and welcomed
2

Topics
• Organizational Goals
• Tourism’s Economic Impact on Tempe
• Tempe Hotel Industry Status
• YTD KPI Updates
• Looking Ahead 
- FY26/27
• Community
• Questions
3

TEMPE TOURISM 
PURPOSE:
TEMPE TOURISM
STRATEGY:
CITY OF TEMPE 
PRIORITY:
CITY OF TEMPE 
PERFORMANCE MEASURE:
Enhancing current 
and developing 
new special events
Tempe Tourism's outcome 
is to increase the economic 
impact of Tempe's special 
events
3.19 – Value of Special Events
Disseminating 
information about 
Tempe to in -state and 
out -of -state 
audiences
Tempe Tourism's 
outcome is to increase 
interactions through our 
digital assets
2.21 – Satisfaction with Availability of 
City Information
Branding Tempe 
as a desirable 
destination to in
-
state and out
-of -
state target 
markets
Tempe Tourism's outcome   
is to increase total paid and 
earned impressions to 
achieve a greater, positive 
awareness of Tempe 
2.21 – Satisfaction with Availability of 
City Information
Contribute to 
Tempe's long
-term 
financial stability 
and vitality
Tempe Tourism's 
outcome is to increase 
overnight travelers as 
measured by monthly 
Bed tax collections
5.10 – Revenue Forecast 
Variance
4

TOTAL VISITATION
DIRECT SPENDING
4.1M
4.2M
4.2M
TOURISM JOBS
Economic Impact of Tourism
3.6M
4.46M
4.3M
6,657
6,929
7,150
781M
1.0B
1.08B
1.12B
4.48M
5,927
7,096
1.13B
5

ROOMS IN TEMPE
OCCUPANCY
4.1M
6,843
ROOMS SOLD
Tempe Hotel Industry Data
6,761
7,180
7,173
1.5M
1.72M
1.74M
1.76M
61%
68%
67%
66.3%
7,241
1.75M
66.4%
6

AVERAGE DAILY RATE
$135
HOTEL REVENUE
Tempe Hotel Industry Data
4.2M
$103
$147
$150
$156M
$232M
$260M $257M
$147
$256M
7

KPI Update 
- Sales
• Tempe is THE PLACE to Meet and Play
⚬Tempe Tourism hosted Conference Direct Leadership
￭15 planners  (partnership with Omni Tempe)
⚬Hosted the annual ACEL Leadership Summit 
⚬Tempe’s group & sports sales team attended 18 tradeshows 
⚬Annual Spring Training Event
￭40+ attendees
⚬Annual Sports Groups: 
￭Ironman Arizona 
- final year
￭Triple Crown
￭Legends CrossFit 
- final year
￭Desert City Classic
￭MLS Next (citywide)
￭RnR  Marathon
⚬Received Partner of the year by Rise & Dream Foundation
⚬Generated and recorded (July 2025 
- April 2026):
￭GROUP & SPORTS LEADS: 681
￭GROUP & SPORTS BOOKINGS: 157
8

KPI Update 
- Marketing
• Ad campaign highlights
⚬Winter billboard campaign in Chicago led to +93% in web visits
⚬Initiated new partnership with THEM, Conde Nast’s LGBTQ+ 
publication which led to 51% open rate.
⚬Inflight WiFi  media campaign on flights between 
Phx , SEA, ORD
⚬Overall media influenced 57,688 trips with an estimated 
economic impact of $6.4M.
• Activations
⚬Launch of Taste in Tempe with 19 restaurants in summer 2025
⚬Summer 2025 hotel partnerships and collaborations
⚬Angels’ Stadium take over in Anaheim. 
￭Home plate rotational TV exposure = 2,776,478 imp.
￭Outfield and Pitching Mound = 22,093,676 imp.
• Awards 
⚬AZ Big Media’s AZ Big 100 
- Person to watch: Cristal Rodriguez
⚬ American Marketing Association Awards 
- Arizona Chapter 
Best Marketing Campaign 
- non -profit - Taste in Tempe
• Website (July 2025 
- May 2026)
⚬1.7M views
⚬720K new users 
- 37% y -over -y increase
9

KPI Update 
- Communications
• Incredible social engagement (July 2025 
- May 2026)
⚬1,006,116 TOTAL Engagements
⚬22,784,438 TOTAL Impressions
• Annual Content Creator Appreciation Event at the Westin
⚬36+ Influencers with a jumpstart on their summer content
⚬Sneak peek at Sushi By 
Boū  (opening at the Westin)
⚬Resulted in more than 65 pieces of content with a combined 
audience of over 1.7M followers
• Collaborations with 8 social influencers in FY 25/26
• Seasonal refreshes and updates to nearly 100 blogs
⚬5 new blogs created this year based on needs assessment
⚬Tours & Sightseeing / 
Culdesac
 Tempe / Catch a Game / 
Juneteenth / Sustainable Meetings
• Earned Media: 26 articles and 2 live TV hits year
-to-date
• CrowdRiff
 Media Hub:
⚬1.6K asset downloads by partners and media
⚬109.5K gallery views
• Travel Blogger Exchange (TBEX): 
⚬Reach of 450 travel bloggers and influencers (June 2026)
10

Research & Planning
• Strategic Plan
⚬Finalized in the Fall 2025 with five imperatives:
￭Elevate brand through targeted niches
￭Greater connections with our hospitality partners
￭Reposition Tourism’s value to the community
￭Share and extend operational excellence
￭Develop strategic funding roadmap
⚬Commissioned Tourism Economic Impact Study for CY2025
￭4.5M visitors (+0.4% y
-o-y)
￭$1.13B in visitor spending (+0.7% y
-o-y)
￭7,150 direct jobs (+0.8% y
-o-y)
￭$121M in state & local taxes (+1.1% y
-o-y)
⚬Smith Travel Research / CoStar
￭Weekly and Monthly Hotel Status Report
￭Provide updates to City of Tempe staff
11

Looking Ahead
• Summer Campaign
⚬Summer promotion with online booking partner 
- Booking.com
⚬Taste in Tempe 
- summer restaurant promotion 
- July 2026
⚬Local Ad Campaign 
- TV, Social, Digital, Billboards
• Strategic Plan
⚬Implement strategies for year one of five year plan
⚬Addition of a new COO role at the organization
⚬Development of new dashboard to provide access to key 
industry and Tempe Tourism data points
• Publishing:
⚬Annual Business Plan for FY26
-27
⚬Annual Report for FY25
-26
• Continue to Develop Meeting & Sports Planner Connections
• Social Influencer Campaigns and Annual Content Creator 
Appreciation Event
• New media partnerships for paid advertising placements
12

Community
• Hosted Tempe Tourism Annual Event
⚬Nearly 200 in attendance
⚬Video presentations
￭Recap of our 2025 summer campaign
￭Insight into staff accomplishments and perspectives
• Sponsorship Support for events
⚬Downtown Tempe Authority 
￭Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade
￭Tempe Blooms
￭Juneteenth Festival
￭Pride Festival
⚬Tempe Chamber of Commerce
⚬Greater Phoenix Equality Chamber of Commerce
⚬One Community
⚬Local First Arizona
⚬Asian Corporate & Entrepreneur Leaders (ACEL)
⚬Open Streets Tempe
⚬Ironman Arizona, Rock n’ Roll Marathon & MLS Next
⚬Innings & Extra Innings Cooperative Campaign
⚬Non -Profit Community
￭Save Our Starving Children
￭Arizona Animal Welfare League
￭GEM Award:  Mikey’s League
￭Fill the Bag Food Drive for TCAA 
- TEAM Tempe project
13

Questions
Tempe City Council Upda