Destination: Tucson Meeting & Event Planning City Guide
Featured Venue
The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa
3800 E. Sunrise Dr., Tucson, Arizona, 85718-3302
487
64,000 sq ft
The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa's newly enhanced guestroom is designed to bring a sense of the wide-open Sonoran Desert indoors.
Destination Articles
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Meet Well
By Nikki Gloudeman
March 05, 2013
The typical Meeting agenda is densely packed with offsites, education sessions, breakouts, keynotes, receptions and group dinners, a schedule frequently consuming more than 10, or even 12, hours a day. Often lost in this dizzying shuffle is time for rejuvenation and invigoration; there’s seldom time to breathe between sessions, let alone relax.
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Three Days in Tucson
By Steve Winston
October 24, 2012
Looking for something out of the ordinary? Try a desert jewel. Tucson, Ariz., sits in the Sonoran Desert surrounded by five mountain ranges that turn from deep earth tones to yellow, orange, pink and then flaming-red as the sun sets. The Sonoran has an amazing diversity of flora and fauna. The landscape is awash in a multitude of colors and textures that enliven the senses. It's filled with geological features including Sabino Canyon and 9,157-foot Mount Lemmon. Yet, this desert city is surprisingly cosmopolitan, with a dynamic cultural life, first-rate dining, two world-class destination spas (Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa and Canyon Ranch) and a major university. These aspects blend seamlessly with a tri-ethnic heritage and an Old West legacy.
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Arizona's 365 Days of Meetings
By Joan Christensen
February 27, 2012
People flock to Arizona for the sunshine, a lifestyle that includes plenty of outdoor recreation year-round, and cultural attractions that run the gamut from Native American historic sites to the famous annual rite of spring training and pre-season games for Major League Baseball teams.
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Old Pueblo, Out West, Upscale
By Richard Rogers
August 03, 2010
Let’s say you’re planning a meeting for a group that you are very well acquainted with. You know they’ve sat through their share of conference sessions in icy cold, cavernous convention center meeting rooms; they’ve eaten plenty of catered lunches of “grilled” chicken and velvet cake; and they’re acquainted with every hotel-lobby Starbucks barista from San Antonio to Seattle.
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Cactus Flowers
By John Anderson
February 23, 2010
Drive south from Phoenix into the heart of the Sonoran Desert and you’ll soon come upon one of the giant saguaro cacti, arms pointing skyward, that can grow to an astonishing 45 feet tall and 10 feet around. Continue into the Saguaro National Park and you’ll soon be surrounded by vast forests of the enormous plants.
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Not Your Traditional Desert
By Macie Schreibman
July 22, 2009
According to Hollywood, in the days of the Old West, two cowboys would stand face-to-face exactly at high noon with their hands on the triggers of their six-shooters.
Learn about Tucson for Event Venues, Services & Meeting Destinations
Destination Description
Smart Stats:
Number of Meetings Hotels: 189
Total Hotel Rooms: 15,923
Number of Special Events Venues: 90
Local Convention Centers: Tucson Convention Center
Local Airports: Tucson International Airport (TIA)
Local CVB: Visit Tucson
Smart Snapshot:
Arizona’s second-most populous city, Tucson is located in the southeastern part of the state. The city features ample shopping, dining, championship golf, arts, culture, and Arizona’s famously warm weather and southwestern style.
Tucson is an ancient city that has been transformed into one of America’s most modern urban hubs, with well over 1 million residents today. The Anasazi and Hohokam tribes lived in the area for a millennia before the Spanish arrived on the local scene in the late 1600s. The Spanish translation of Tucson is “Old Pueblo,” still a common nickname because the original heart of the city was the Tucson Presidio, an adobe-walled structure built to provide protection. Tucson officially became a city in 1776, first as a northern outpost for the Spanish and then for the Mexican government, before finding itself part of the United States in 1854.
Nowadays, traces of that Wild West past can still be found in Tucson, although the backdrop has changed dramatically. The metropolis still has a compelling setting, with thorny cacti and deep red sunsets that fall behind rolling hills, but it now offers so much more. Despite its growth, Tucson still manages to hold onto its history, integrating culture and authentic southwest charm into just about everything. The city also shows off Spanish colonial and southwestern-style architecture, making its rich history hard to ignore (even amid the boom of new properties).
