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Sherry Henry has been appointed the new director of the Arizona Office of Tourism. Henry is best known for her 24 years at Tempe's Fiesta Inn as general manager and director of sales and marketing, as well as her stint as manager of hospitality marketing for the Fiesta Bowl. Henry has declared her immediate aims are to maximize the efficacy of the tourism office’s shrinking budget. The budget was originally set at $21 million for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, but it has already been slashed by $6.4 million.

Henry replaces longtime agency head Margie Emmermann, who last year was named State Tourism Director of the Year. Emmermann will become executive director of the Arizona-Mexico Commission and a Mexico and Latin America policy adviser to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.