Megapolitan

Megapolitan regions encompass cities, towns and counties with broader relationships among them such as goods movement, business linkages, cultural commonality, and shared physical environments.  Megapolitan regions are a growing force in globalization and drive the integration of continental economies into the increasingly integrated world economy.  Travel and tourism is fundamental to this integration.

The following map depicts the megapolitan regions as defined by Virgina Tech in 2006.  Since the map's production, some changes and additions have been made.  We will update the graphic when a new map is released.

Arizona's megapolitan region is known as the Sun Corridor.  The region ties together Phoenix, Tucson, villages, open space, and desert.  The Sun Corridor is the fastest growing megapolitan region in the United States, one of only two megapolitan areas that include an international boundary, and home to twenty-one American Indian communities - the largest number of tribes of any one state in the nation.  The Sun Corridor is an ideal laboratory to research the role of tourism in community development.