This is the place to experience the real Arizona – the real West, the home of the OK Corral and the U.S. Calvary battles with Geronimo and Cochise. Stunning scenic beauty, challenging high-desert golf, mouthwatering dining, colorful cultural influences and an ideal climate all combine to offer meeting planners a rich variety of experiences in Tucson and Southern Arizona.

The geography is a postcard image of saguaro-covered landscape and rugged mountains. Visitors enjoy hiking and horseback riding among towering saguaro cactuses – Saguaro National Park consists of the largest concentration of saguaro cactuses – or teeing off on one of the area’s many fine golf courses designed by some of the world’s top golfers. Birding aficionados find themselves in bird-watching heaven and everyone is astounded by the Sonoran Desert blooms. 

Tucson
Situated in the midst of the Sonoran Desert, Tucson (TOO-sahn) is Arizona’s second-largest city with 1,000,000 residents, making it the business hub of Southern Arizona. History buffs, urban cowboys and epicureans will all find a special place in Tucson. A two-hour drive south of Phoenix on Interstate 10, the city is just over an hour from the Sonora, Mexico border and is the gateway to the legendary territorial southwest. Tucson is an amazing meld of cowboy culture, Spanish, Mexican and Native American heritage, luxury resorts, award-winning dining, golf, outdoor recreation, world famous spas, visual arts, science, and research as well as home to the University of Arizona.

Meeting planners appreciate the ease of making travel arrangements for events in Tucson. Tucson International Airport is served by 12 different airlines with connections to more than 121 destinations. Nonstop service is available to the airport from 24 cities and connecting service from hundreds more in the U.S. and Mexico. The airport is conveniently located to the foothill resorts and the downtown convention area. Ground shuttle services connect Tucson’s airport with Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.

Tucson boasts some 350 days of sunshine annually, more than any other city in the U.S. The area is famous for mild temperatures during spring, fall, and winter. The low humidity moderates even the warmest summer temperatures making the area comfortable year-round. A summer monsoon season and light winter rains annually revitalize the area’s lush desert environment.

Plans to break ground on a new $130-million Tucson Arena are underway for August 2008. The new arena will be located to the west of the Tucson Convention Center with plans for a full expansion of the Center underway as well. A new Convention Center hotel will join the development of the area. 

Tucson has a host of numerous shopping opportunities scattered in and around town. Five major malls complement a number of smaller centers. Visitors will find an array of all things Southwestern, from museum-quality Native American textiles and jewelry to Mexican folk crafts and cowboy memorabilia.

Sightseeing in Tucson includes the historic buildings and museums which are prominent throughout the area. The most visited is the “White Dove of the Desert,” the Mission San Xavier del Bac, acclaimed by many to be the finest example of mission architecture in the U.S. The chapel is still used for Mass.

Downtown are the old houses of the Presidio District as well as colorful Barrio adobes, some of which have been converted into office buildings. The Historic Fox Theater, an art deco movie house, has recently been renovated to its original splendor, and is now available for group events.

At the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, groups can observe native flora and fauna of the desert in natural-looking enclosures. Mountain lions, bighorn sheep, bears and prairie dogs are some of the desert denizens found here. Tucson Botanical Gardens, recently named the nation’s best “secret garden,” is another excellent display of desert habitat. Tohono Chul Park is a 49-acre oasis located on the eastern edge of Tucson featuring a combination of desert nature, arts, and culture.

Take the group to the Pima Air & Space Museum, with its abundant meeting space and huge collection of aircraft both indoors and out, or the popular aircraft ‘bone yard’ at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The Titan Missile Museum south of town preserves the only Titan II missile left intact, still in its silo and relegated to history.

From outdoor cowboy cookout venues to white tablecloth gourmet dining – Tucson offers something for everyone. The hotels and resorts offer a full range of menu items from classic American fare to innovative Southwestern dishes. Throughout this entire region, the Mexican cuisine is quite simply superb. With more than 150 Mexican restaurants in Tucson alone, the most difficult decision is choosing where to dine.

Many of the 3,000-some restaurants in Tucson are local establishments where owners and chefs have created signature blends of Southwestern cuisine. The menus often trace back to the owner’s origins, perhaps to the interior or the coastal regions of Mexico, to Latin America or Spain, or to Native American roots. As a university city, there are restaurants representing nearly every corner of the globe which adds further interest to the dining scene.

Tucson is home to multiple spectator sports and the only city in the U.S. that hosts three Major League Baseball Spring Training teams – the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies. An afternoon of spring baseball is the perfect group activity. For the cowboy sporting experience, the Tucson Rodeo Grounds host the historic Fiesta de los Vaqueros event in February which is full of pageantry and tradition, as well as Desert Thunder Pro Rodeo.
Tucson offers meeting planners more – more convention and meeting facility options, more options for unusual and interesting activities, more variety in scenic beauty and more reasons to return again and again.   

Arts in Tucson & Southern Arizona
Tucson has been referred to as "mini-Mecca for the arts" by the Wall Street Journal. Meeting planners seeking the addition of arts and cultural programs into their meetings packages find Southern Arizona a source of interesting activities and experiences. In nearly every community in Southern Arizona, interest in and support of the arts is part of the social fabric. Tubac has a particularly successful arts community and is gaining in reputation as the next Santa Fe. The artistic community in Bisbee is also recognized.

The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block blend the traditional with the inventive to create compelling and beautiful exhibitions. There is always something new and interesting showing at the museum. Located in historic downtown, the museum features five distinctive houses built between 1850 and 1907 that provide visitors a unique look into Tucson’s past.

Even further back in time, before the Spanish explorers, prehistoric residents left their art on rock canvases. The petroglyphs they chiseled can be seen today in places like Signal Hill at Saguaro National Park. Today’s Tucson carries on these artistic traditions. Hundreds of outdoor murals grace buildings throughout the city, one of them on the entrance wall at the Tucson Museum of Art.

Venues for the performing arts are plentiful. A number of dance and theater groups offer performances year-round, both indoors and out. Some of the more notable are the Tucson Pops and Symphony Orchestras, Arizona Opera Company, Ballet Folklorico Arizona and Arizona Theater Company.
From exquisite Native American and Western art, to the works of Mexico and Tubac artisans, the culture of Southern Arizona encourages the artistic spirit in us all.  

History & Heritage
Spain, Mexico, the United States confederacy, the state of Arizona, and the United States of America have all laid claim to Southern Arizona. The history of the Tucson area actually traces back some 3,000 years to a time when Indian villages flourished along desert streams and rivers.

In 1540 the conquistadors marched through the area searching in vain for fabled rivers of gold. Ten missions were established by the Spanish, including the remarkably beautiful and enduring Mission San Xavier del Bac. Tucson was founded in 1775 about a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed.

During the ensuing years Mexico fought and won independence from Spain in 1821 and gained ownership of Arizona, only to then be forced to battle the Native American tribes who also laid claim to land. This struggle continued for approximately 27 years until the U.S. defeated the worn-down Mexican army in 1848. Border disputes continued in the territory until 1853 when the Gadsden Purchase placed Southern Arizona under U.S. jurisdiction and created the final boundary adjustment between the two countries.

Southern Arizona embraces this rich history, reflected in historic downtown neighborhoods, traditional taquerias, the historic missions and throughout Southern Arizona where territorial history is interwoven in the culture.  

Southern Arizona
Southern Arizona contains lush saguaro studded hills, riparian canyons where streambeds run full in the spring and cottonwood trees turn in the fall, and cool mountain peaks that flourish with ponderosa pines and wintertime snow. This area extends from Picacho Peak, south to the Mexican border, west to Ajo, and east to the New Mexico state border. Interstates 10 and 19 both lead through this area and converge in Tucson.

Located among the scenic sky-island mountains and desert riparian preserves of southeastern Arizona, Cochise County is a land of Old West legends. Chief among the legendary names of the Old West is Tombstone – “the town too tough to die.” Once larger than Tucson, the town embraces its notorious past with reenactments of the “Gunfight at the OK Corral” followed by a short walk to the Boot Hill cemetery.

Cochise’s Stronghold, the fabled hideout of the Chiricahua Apache Indians, is a hiking and rock-climbing mecca in the Dragoon Mountains near Benson, also the former railroad hub of Southern Arizona and current home of Kartchner Caverns State Park.

The Amerind Museum, housed in beautiful Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings, contains one of the finest private collections of Native American art and artifacts in the country. The museum is located near Interstate 10 in Texas Canyon between Benson and Willcox.

In the mile-high artist colony of Bisbee, history is preserved among the Victorian-era homes and mining boomtown attractions. The Queen Mine which once supported the wealthy booming community now offers underground mine tours. Many original buildings in the town have been preserved and resurrected as galleries and shops for the eclectic arts community.

Sierra Vista, about 25 miles from Bisbee, is home of the historic Fort Huachuca, the site of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center. Built in 1877, the original Victorian-style officer’s quarters are still in use. The Buffalo Soldier Memorial, a tribute to African-American soldiers who fought on the frontier, is located in Sierra Vista.

Birding is extremely popular in the 36-mile San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area where the San Pedro River supports more than 400 species. The Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Nature Preserve near Sierra Vista is a peaceful oasis where a rainbow of hummingbirds migrates seasonally, along with more than 150 other bird species. Every winter, huge populations of sandhill cranes visit the produce-farming town of Willcox. Along the international border, Douglas is distinguished for its many National Register of Historic Places buildings and proximity to Mexico.

Santa Cruz County is located in the southernmost central part of Arizona, bordering Mexico and serving as the gateway to North America’s most important port of entry, Nogales, Mexico. Nogales spans the U.S. and Mexico border and its busy bazaars serve as favorite stops for those who love to bargain for purchases. Visitors can park on the U.S. side and walk over.

Santa Cruz County offers an eclectic blend of history, culture, art, and natural beauty. Tubac is a thriving artists’ community of over 100 shops, studios and galleries and the Tubac Center of the Arts. The town moniker is “Where Art and History Meet,” with Presidio State Historic Park preserving the remnants of an old Spanish fort and offering exhibits displaying early frontier life. Tumacacori National Historic Park preserves a mission established by the early Franciscans.

Here also is the mountain and birding town of Patagonia, and Arizona’s wine communities of Sonoita and Elgin. The limestone terrain in this area is ideal for growing grapes, and many compare it to regions in France.

Rio Rico, “Rich River,” located along the Santa Cruz River is a small community resulting from a land grant from the Spanish Government. Here, visitors can find historic military forts, ghost towns, a luxury resort and the Calabassas Mission Ruins National Park.

Southern Arizona welcomes meeting planners to experience the amazing allure of this part of the country. The variety of terrain in the area provides a stunning backdrop for entertainment programs flush with unique history and culture and certain to be remembered fondly in a world filled with ordinary meetings.