Prescott eNews

One of the first items that the newly elected Prescott City Council turned their attention to was tourism, even to the point of hiring a consultant, Bill Geist, to help them figure out why the current tourism strategy was ineffective and what to about it. After talking with the various stakeholders, Geist made his report, which you can read about here: Live Update: Tourism Presentation To Prescot Council And Stakeholders. 

Since then, there have been countless meetings, discussions and presentations, culminating in a decision to abandon the tourism and marketing methods which had been used for many, many years, and have the City manage tourism on its own. Live Update of the Prescott City Council Meeting: April 27, 2010.

While this decision created angst on the part of some of the stakeholders, others were clearly appreciative of the new territory being staked out by the City. (see: Guest Columnist: How Many Lives Does PactMan Have Left?) 

The culmination of those efforts has paid off with the hiring of Don Prince to be the new Director of Tourism for the City of Prescott. City Manager Steve Norwood explained why Prince was chosen, "Don Prince, who has currently been running his own private business the last couple of years, and just has a great record. He spent 8 years working for the state of Arizona, so he knows the government approach and also has the contacts with the state level, he's also been in 3 or 4 private companies, he's owned his own business, so he's well rounded and brings a very diverse skill set to the position... The main thing is knowing the State of Arizona, and he definitely knows that, and will be a great asset."

Yesterday was Prince's first day, and although it was a bit hectic, he was able to fit in some time to talk about his goals and where he starts first:

Acknowledging the challenge of limited resources, Prince is undaunted, stating that Prescott has so much to offer. He also notes that a natural outcome of an effective tourism plan is economic development.

Mayor Marlin Kuykendall is excited about the opportunity to work with Prince and pledged to do all he could to further the efforts. "I think we've got the right person for the job," he said. " Prescott is fortunate to have Don Prince willing to come and build this department from scratch."

Members of the community also seem to agree. Gary Edelbrock, former Chairman of the Prescott Area Coalition of Tourism (PACT) summed it up, "We couldn't have gotten a better guy," he stated.

Prince knows he has a big job ahead of him, but he doesn't plan to do it alone, as he explains here:

To contact Don Prince, call the City of Prescott at 777.1100 or send an email.