Governor says tourism revenue up in Alamogordo
Alamogordo Daily News
By: Alex Quintana
July 8th, 2014
Gov. Susana Martinez stopped in Alamogordo to announce tourism campaign numbers and to boast the amount of communities joining the state’s tourism efforts.
Martinez spoke at the New Mexico Museum of Space History to announce increases in tourism due in part to the New Mexico True campaign.
According to a press release by the governor’s office, overall spending by visitors to the state increased by 7 percent in 2013 — roughly $300 million in new revenue taken in by communities throughout the state.
“This is our second year of record-breaking tourism in New Mexico and it wouldn’t be possible without the valuable communities such as Alamogordo,” Martinez said. “I think this museum itself has received funding in the last two years when it hadn’t received funding in the past and so we are thrilled that this museum is here.”
She said this is the third consecutive year of tourism growth in the state.
Overall, visitor spending has grown by more than 24 percent since 2010 and marketable overnight trips are up 38 percent, according to the release.
Over that time period, an additional 2.4 million visitors came to New Mexico, with a record 32.2 million people traveling to our state last year alone; and, as a result of this growth, the leisure and hospitality industry created 1,700 new jobs last year. Seven hundred new jobs were created between January and May of this year, according to the release.
Martinez said according to the lodgers tax, revenues are up 15 percent over last year in Alamogordo and visits to White Sands National Monument have increased by more than 9 percent.
She said this is a good indicator that people are staying in hotels and taking advantage of local hospitalities.
Martinez said Alamogordo was one of the first communities to join the campaign with “Road To Romance commercial and with participation with It Feels Like Home” video and sing along. In March 2014, Alamogordo reported an increase in visitation of 15.3 percent over last summer, according to the release.
Community Service Administrative Assistant and Film Liaison with the City of Alamogordo, Jan Wafful, said the city adopted the campaign when it first began back in 2012.
“The city promotion board makes the decisions about how the advertising lodgers tax is placed and they decided right away to go with New Mexico True as soon as it became available for us to join that campaign for the city,” Wafful said.
Martinez said each of the 25 communities around the state pledged to put their own money behind New Mexico True and was proud to say that those partnerships amount to $2 million.
“We also wanted our communities to work together and maximize the investment — maximize the ability to share and spread that word of how valuable New Mexico is,” she said. “It is so gratifying to see that all this work is taking shape with 25 communities officially on board with New Mexico True.”
According to the release, the New Mexico Tourism Department noted that statewide lodging receipts from the beginning of the year through May were up 6.1 percent over last year and gross receipts accommodations taxes are up 6.4 percent through the first quarter of 2014.
Since 2011, the Tourism Department increased the percentage of its budget specifically to the advertising and promotion from 28 percent in 2007-2010 to 68 percent in 2014.
Martinez said the state budget for advertisement was $2.5 million when she first took office.
“That is not enough to advertise especially with all the uniqueness of New Mexico,” she said. “Right now we are a little over $9 million, when you bring all the communities together that are already part of New Mexico True, and everyday we have a new community within New Mexico wanting to become a part of it.”
Martinez said the state is not done because there is more to brag about in the state and more communities to bring in that will increase the budget.
“The only thing I want to add is that we don’t want just people from other states to come to New Mexico, we want people from within New Mexico to discover parts of the state that they have never been to,” Martinez said. “I am one of them. I was living way down south in (Las) Cruces and I didn’t travel very much in the very northern part of the state. Now I have and it’s gorgeous.”