I’d probably love New Mexico even if Route 66 hadn’t passed through it. But this story today from the Wall Street Journal surprised me:
Overnight tourist trips in New Mexico have dropped by nearly 10% in the past three years, and spending on everything from souvenir magnets to turquoise jewelry fell by hundreds of millions of dollars. […]
So state officials are launching a $2.5 million effort to rebrand New Mexico as a place of charm and character, adventure, excitement—and really good green chili cheeseburgers. As a model, the state is looking north to Colorado, which routinely gets praised in focus groups as “majestic,” “glorious” and “heavenly.”
Focus groups kept saying the Land of Enchantment was “arid,” “barren,” or “dull.” And the state acknowledges strange tourism decisions, including playing up goofy UFO theories in Roswell.
The story make it plain that ignorance about New Mexico’s attractions and culture is the largest hurdle. It aims to change that; the state hired a new tourism secretary and tourism marketing director.
It’s probably a good thing changes are being made. Although the New Mexico Tourism Department’s website shows a Route 66 shield on its home page, it’s hard to find a link to the actual page of Mother Road attractions. And the details are a bit scant once you get there.
What would you do to improve tourism in New Mexico? And I’d like to hear non-Route 66 answers as well.
(Photo of hot-air balloon launch near Gallup by Dan Monaghan, courtesy of New Mexico Tourism Department)
Colorado has been a marketing success for decades – and the eastern half of the state is ignored. In New Mexico the entire state is worth visiting. The culture and history of the pueblos, the Apache, the Navajo can all be promoted effectively. The food is incredible – green chile cheeseburgers are only part of the scene. We have sopaipillas, Navajo tacos, fry bread, lamb stew, biscochitos, and much much more. The scenery is incredibly diverse. Shiprock, Carlsbad Caverns, and many locations in between. Our history runs from Onate to the present day – earlier when the above mentioned native history is included.
The Colorado tourism people and the folks at Arizona Highways have done an impressive job of marketing their states. New Mexico has as much to offer as they do – but we have never done it as effectively. Perhaps that is about to change.
1. Slideshow featuring every functioning neon sign on Route 66 in New Mexico, with specific locations on each slide, arranged from east to west to give travelers a sort of virtual neon cruise.
2. Market the crap out of Hatch. Between the chiles and that quirky coffeehouse/barbecue place with the hilarious collection of fiberglass characters, it’s a terrific place to spend the day.
3. White Sands. OMG, White Sands. I could spend a week on the dunes and not be bored.
4. State highways are more about scenery than speed. Start a “slow down and enjoy New Mexico” promotion showing somebody cruising along one of the many unpaved state highways.
5. Tony Hillerman tours. I’m serious. Team up with Arizona on this one. Give me a replica of Leaphorn’s famous Map of Indian Country with all the crime locations marked on it and some tips on where to eat, stay, etc. in that part of the country, and I’ll spend weeks wandering around out there, following in the steps of my favorite fictional detectives.
6. Pay attention to the whole state. The MIO (Made in Oklahoma) campaign is awesome. New Mexico kinda-sorta does that, except it ignores the artisans and cottage industries based in less fashionable areas. Get everybody together and focused.
7. Speaking of made in New Mexico, the state really needs to be promoting its beef jerky. I didn’t even like the stuff until I had some in New Mexico, where beef jerky tastes like beef. (It just tastes like sugar-sweetened shoe leather everywhere else in the country.) MARKET IT.
Sorry, but you know me – I’d fire the tourism director – and then ask the next one why, when there’s only 8 states out of 50 that have Route 66, they’d continue to ignore it? If they didn’t answer the question properly, I’d fire that one too!