New Mexico could take lessons from Texas heritage tourism program
When my son drove his family, including his in-laws, to see Carlsbad Caverns, they were as fascinated by the pump jacks as they were by the caves. They’d never seen these bobbing creatures, but you won’t find one in a “New Mexico True” advertisement.
That’s one of many differences between how New Mexico and Texas promote themselves to tourists. Listening to a presentation on the Texas Heritage Trails Program at a recent historical conference in Lubbock, I thought we could learn from them.
Texas touts “heritage tourism” through driving trails in ten regions of the state. While the Texas Historical Commission is the initiative’s umbrella organization, the regions are partnerships among the state, local governments and private entities. A line item in the state’s budget pays the salaries of executive directors of each trail region, and they raise money through events, memberships and grants.
These regional executive directors are one of the program’s strengths. At the conference we heard from four of them. They’re energetic multi-taskers who work with individual sites and communities to help get the word out. “We sit on boards. We do hospitality trainings. We design websites,” said one young woman. They staff booths in city events and the state fair. “We’re outside of our region and pushing people into our regions.”
The trails structure embraces ALL the attractions and assets in a region. The Pecos Trail, for example, features the Permian Basin as well as the Goodnight-Loving Trail, Judge Roy Bean in Langtry along with Monahans Sandhills. Each region promotes its state and national parks, small towns, recreation areas, museums, historic districts, festivals, art, battlefields and Main Street cities.
The notion of heritage embraces ranching, oil, early railroads, rock art, and border radio stations.
It all began in 1968 with the Hemisfair, a kind of World’s Fair, in San Antonio that brought international visitors to the city. Texas boosters pondered how to keep them longer and draw them into the rural areas. Gov. John Connelly introduced Texas Travel Trails – ten driving trails mapped out with recreation and historic sites marked by signs. Connelly pointed to a desk-top picture of his wife wearing a blue dress and told aides the signs should be “Nellie blue.” The signs guide visitors to this day.
Closest to New Mexico are the Mountain Trail, Pecos Trail and Plains Trail regions.
Connelly dedicated the first trail, the six-county Mountain Trail, in 1968 by driving the loop in a caravan of dignitaries flanked by state troopers. It included Alpine, El Paso, Fort Davis, Marathon, Marfa, and Van Horn. Its biggest attractions are Big Bend and Guadalupe national parks.
Texas views these efforts as economic development through history and heritage, a remarkable perspective. That, according to a brochure, encourages local preservation and statewide marketing to increase visitation, which in turn protects the state’s historic resources.
“It’s a truly rural program and depends on small communities,” said Tammie Virden, executive director of the Texas Forts Trail.
This is another of the program’s strengths. The executive directors are all posted in small communities, not distant cities, so it’s not top-down but a community-up effort in which locals communicate with each other. The executive directors are available to help local sites or chambers or friends groups with ideas or technical assistance.
In New Mexico, rural communities get a little advertising from the state, but they mostly toot their own horn, and it’s a small horn. There’s some regional promotion, but it lacks the all-in-this-together feeling of the Texas program.
We in New Mexico are a little snobbish about our attractions and think we easily outshine Texas. That may be so, but without effective promotion, we’re Cinderella in the attic.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: New Mexico could take lessons from Texas heritage tourism program
