But that didn't keep her from heading to the Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park yesterday for a two-hour workshop on Tucson history and visitor attractions.

"There's so much to do in this town, I need to be constantly refreshed," Boysen said. "Somebody asked me about Kitt Peak yesterday. I haven't sent anybody there in a while so I had to make some calls to get information."

The Tucson Hosts workshop attracted about 75 people from just about all the local tourism entities on the "A" list. The workshop, put on by the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau and Pima Community College, is part of the 17th annual National Tourism Week.

Like Boysen, prominent public relations man Michael Bolchalk saw value in taking the armchair tour of Tucson.

"I want to get up to speed, do a refresher, get reoriented. I'm on a learning curve," said Bolchalk, whose Tucson firm in April won the tourism marketing contract for Cochise County.

The Tucson City Council, which partially funds the bureau, asked the bureau to put on a job training program to educate employees in the tourism industry so they can better advise tourists on what to do in the area.

To take the learning one step deeper, people attending Tucson Hosts got free passes to a number of local attractions.

"We want to get those people out to those places," said Jean McKnight Guymon, spokeswoman for the bureau.

"Our goal is for them to walk away with some new knowledge they didn't have," she said.

The better front-line hospitality industry employees can fill the minds of visitors with ideas for activities, the more the tourist will spend.

Additionally, the more tourists know, the more they will want to come back and spend more money here, McKnight Guymon said.

Tourism generates more than $8 billion a year in Arizona.

Tourism ranks as the No. 3 industry in the United States, amounting to $584 billion in spending, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. In Tucson, McKnight Guymon said it is one of the top industries, but had no specific ranking for it.

Even though the Grand Canyon claims a huge share of the state's tourism, many travelers get to the southern part of the state.

The survey this year ranks Tucson as the No. 1 city in the U.S. for hotels, resorts and spas when it comes to overall quality.

"The Zagat Survey is mostly used by industry people," McKnight Guymon said. "They're great to have as our fans.

"To have the industry recognize us is a great honor. They will help promote us. Tucson is definitely up there in terms of worldwide recognition."