Phoenix

Phoenix is the capital of Arizona, the biggest city in the American Southwest, and the sixth largest city in the United States. It was founded in 1871 and has grown to become the key political, cultural, economic, and transportation hub for the area. It is located at a height of 1100 feet (335 meters) in the ecologically diverse Sonoran Desert. It has combined with adjacent cities Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, Peoria, Chandler, and Gilbert throughout time to create the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Exurbs like as Apache Junction, Fountain Hills, Queen Creek, and Sun City are currently being integrated into this metropolitan region. Summers in Phoenix are quite hot and dry, so always carry sunscreen with you!

INDUSTRY OF THE TOURISM

The tourism business has existed in Phoenix for the greatest period of time. Beginning with promotions in the 1920s, the industry has expanded to become one of the city’s top ten. Phoenix and its neighbors have routinely placed among the top destinations in the country for the amount of Five Diamond/Five Star resorts due to their environment. Greater Phoenix receives about 16 million tourists each year, the majority of whom are leisure (as opposed to business) travelers. Sky Harbor Airport, which serves the Greater Phoenix region, handles around 40 million people each year, placing it among the nation’s top ten busiest airports.

Golf is a major draw in the Phoenix region, with over 200 courses. Along with the city’s attractions, there are several attractions within a short drive of Phoenix, including Agua Fria National Monument, Arcosanti, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Lost Dutchman State Park, Montezuma’s Castle, Montezuma’s Well, and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Phoenix is also a hub for many of Arizona’s attractions, including the Grand Canyon, Lake Havasu (home of the London Bridge), Meteor Crater, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Tombstone, Kartchner Caverns, Sedona, and the Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff.

UNDERSTAND

Why would someone establish a city in the midst of a desert? Surprisingly, agriculture is the solution. Native Americans began using the Salt and Verde rivers in central Arizona for large-scale agriculture as early as the 11th century. The region that is now Phoenix was a hub of the Hohokam civilisation, which created extensive canal systems and a network of cities and villages, the remnants of which can still be seen throughout the city. In the nineteenth century, white settlers uncovered vestiges of the Hohokam civilisation. The city’s name recalls its past as a community “reborn from the ashes.”

The region was settled by Europeans and Americans in the 1860s, and the building of the first of many huge reservoirs in the mountains north and east of Phoenix in 1911 ensured the area’s prosperity as an irrigation-based agricultural hub. Thousands of acres of citrus, cotton, and other crops were planted, and for many years, intense, year-round irrigated agriculture was the economic backbone. Recent years have seen a renaissance, with chic hotels, clubs, boutiques, and restaurants reviving the area.

Winters that were mild and sunny also supported a robust tourist economy, which attracted a large number of Easterners and Midwesterners to migrate to Phoenix. After World War II, the high-tech sector flourished, and Phoenix’s expansion has been spectacular. As a consequence, a population of little more than 100,000 in 1950 has dwindled to an estimated 1,537,058 in 2014. (with the metro area estimated at 4,489,109).

Phoenix’s climate is desert, with lengthy, scorching summers and very mild winters. It has the highest average temperature of any United States urban region. The weather fluctuates dramatically from season to season. While it is not as cold as it is in the northern states during the winter, temperatures in the 30s°F (about or slightly over 0°C) are not unheard of. Summer is characterized by very hot and dry weather. On the warmest days, temperatures may reach 115°F (46°C) or more. From July through September, monsoon rains with lightning are common in the late afternoon and evening, and possibly overnight as well. April is the best month to visit. Cicada insects generate loud noises in some districts from dusk till daybreak.

Phoenix is located in the southwestern United States, in the south-central region of Arizona, about midway between Tucson and Flagstaff. Due to its position in the Salt River Valley, the metropolitan region is dubbed the “Valley of the Sun.” It is located in the northern portions of the Sonoran Desert at an average height of 1,086 feet (331 m).

Except for the mountains inside and surrounding the city, Phoenix’s geography is mostly flat, enabling the city’s principal thoroughfares to follow a perfect grid pattern with broad, open-spaced highways. The valley is surrounded by a scattering of low mountain ranges: the McDowell Mountains to the northeast, the White Tank Mountains to the west, the Superstition Mountains to the east, and the Sierra Estrella to the southwest. Large stretches of irrigated cornfield and various Indian reservations are located on the outskirts of Phoenix. The Salt River flows westward through Phoenix, and the riverbed is often dry or has just a trickle of water owing to extensive irrigation diversions. South Mountain separates Ahwatukee from the rest of the city.

The city has a total area of 517.9 square miles (1,341 km2), of which 516.7 square miles (1,338 km2) is land and 1.2 square miles (0.6 km2, or 0.2 percent) is water. While it is the sixth most populous city, its huge size results in a low population density of around 2,797 persons per square mile. By contrast, Philadelphia, the fifth most populated city, has a population density of almost 11,000 people per square mile.

Phoenix, like the rest of Arizona, does not follow daylight saving time. Governor Jack Williams stated to the United States Congress in 1973 that since air conditioning systems are not used as often in the morning on standard time, energy consumption will rise in the evening. He continued by stating that energy consumption will increase “because more lights would be on in the early morning.” Additionally, he was afraid that daylight savings time might result in children attending school in the dark.

Phoenix’s early economy was centered on agricultural and natural resources, with a heavy reliance on the “5Cs” of copper, cattle, climate, cotton, and citrus. The city became more accessible in the 1920s with the completion of the Southern Pacific rail line in 1926, the building of Union Station in 1923, and the development of Sky Harbor airport by the end of the decade. Phoenix was devastated by the Great Depression, but Phoenix’s economy was varied, and by 1934, the city was on the mend. After World War II ended, the valley’s economy grew significantly, as many men who had completed their military training at numerous sites in and around Phoenix returned with their families. The building sector developed further as a result of the city’s expansion with the establishment of Sun City. It served as a model for suburban expansion in post-World War II America, while Sun City, which opened in 1960, served as a model for retirement communities. Between the mid-1960s and the mid-2000s, the city averaged a 4% yearly growth rate.

As the 2007–10 national financial crisis started, Phoenix’s building industry collapsed and property prices plummeted. Arizona occupations decreased by 11.8 percent between 2007 and 2010; in 2007, Phoenix had 1,918,100 employed residents; by 2010, that number had fallen to 1,691,600, a decrease of 226,500. By the end of 2015, Phoenix’s employment total had climbed to 1.97 million, recovering pre-recession levels, with job growth happening across the board.

As of 2014, the Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of little more than $215 billion. The top five sectors were real estate (35.5 billion dollars), finance and insurance (18.8 billion dollars), manufacturing (18.2 billion dollars), retail trade (16.6 billion dollars), and health care (16.6 billion dollars). If government were a private sector entity, it would have placed third on the list, producing $18.9 billion.

When it comes to designing and creating new developments in Phoenix, real estate developers encounter few limits. As a result, the city is prone to excessive growth during periods of economic boom. This explains why the city’s vacancy rates are greater than the national average.

As of 2010, the top five occupations were office and administrative support (17.8%), sales (11.6%), food preparation and serving (9%) and transportation and material movement (6.1%). (5.8 percent ). Retail salespersons are the single biggest profession, accounting for 3.7 percent of the total. As of January 2016, 10.5 percent of the workforce was comprised of government personnel, a significant proportion given the city’s dual status as county seat and state capital. There were 2,200,900 civilian workers, and the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent.

Phoenix is now home to four Fortune 500 companies: Avnet, Freeport-McMoRan, retailer PetSmart, and Republic Services, a trash hauler. The Aerospace division of Honeywell is headquartered in Phoenix, and the valley is home to a number of the company’s avionics and mechanical facilities. Intel has one of their major facilities in the region, employing over 12,000 people, making it the company’s second largest facility in the nation. Additionally, the city is home to U-HAUL International’s headquarters, Best Western, and Apollo Group, the parent company of the University of Phoenix. US Air/American Airlines is the primary airline at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport. Mesa Air Company, a minor airline group based in Phoenix, is headquartered there.

The military maintains a sizable presence in Phoenix, particularly at Luke Air Force Base in the western suburbs. The sub-prime mortgage crisis had a devastating impact on the city. Phoenix, on the other hand, has regained 83% of the employment lost during the recession.