Mesa, Arizona, became the first autism-certified city in the United States in November 2019, rolling out the welcome mat for individuals on the autism spectrum after a nine-month effort led by Visit Mesa during which nearly 4,000 community members completed or committed to completing autism certification.

The effort was spearheaded by Marc Garcia, Visit Mesa’s CEO, whose son Mason was diagnosed with autism at fourteen months old, and followed a difficult family vacation in California. “He had meltdown after meltdown, and we got the stares from people, the muffled whispers,” Garcia told CrowdRiff. “The thing was, this wasn’t necessarily coming from other guests like us; it was from supposed hospitality professionals.” 

Back home in Mesa, Garcia began considering ways his city could better support the autism community. Not just because it was a feel-good charity initiative, but because he had come to  recognize the significant economic opportunity it could provide for his city.