The Phoenix Tourism People Don't Know | Live From IPW 2026

Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Visit Phoenix⁠ president and CEO Ron Price⁠ sits down with Afar deputy editor Michelle Baran for one of our most surprising travel industry interviews yet: a look at Phoenix tourism, and why so many first-time visitors leave saying, "I had no idea."

Ron has worked in tourism for 30 years, with a career that spans Marriott, Visit San Antonio, and the Arlington Texas Convention and Visitors Bureau. He joined Visit Phoenix in 2021, and under his leadership the city has hosted the Super Bowl, the Women's Final Four, and, next year, the NBA All-Star Game. In 2024 he launched the Phoenix Sports and Events Commission, giving the country's fifth-largest city a coordinated way to compete for major events.

In this episode, Ron and Michelle discuss:

Why the Sonoran is the wettest desert in the world, and how the lushness keeps surprising visitors who arrived expecting Wile E. Coyote

The Phoenix Sports and Events Commission, the return of the Viva PHX culture festival⁠, and the strategy of growing youth and amateur sports alongside championship events

The TSMC effect⁠, the largest international investment in American history, and what $165 billion in semiconductor manufacturing means for international flights, including two new direct routes from Taiwan

How Waymo made Phoenix the only American city where an autonomous vehicle picks you up at the airport, a case study in the destination management and travel innovation now reshaping Phoenix tourism

The Canadian snowbird market's stabilization, and what doubling down on a hesitant market looks like in practice

The honest conversation about summer heat, the city's heat-mitigation investments, and the no-daylight-savings advantage that makes early-morning hikes possible

Plus: a ⁠Pan Am-themed speakeasy⁠ where the LED windows simulate a flight to San Francisco, the 22 ⁠Indigenous nations⁠ within the valley, and a passionate endorsement of Phoenix's ⁠Michelin-bound culinary scene⁠.

This is one in a series of travel industry interviews and tourism experts interviews recorded live at IPW 2026, part of View From Afar's ongoing look at travel trends 2026, destination highlights, and the changemakers shaping the future of Phoenix tourism and beyond.

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