Visit Albuquerque Highlights Past Achievements, Debuts New Initiatives at December 2018 Quarterly Meeting and Holiday Party

Last week, we held our December Quarterly Meeting and Holiday Party at the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North, celebrating another strong year of marketing Albuquerque as a visitor, convention and sports destination. Reflecting on the past year and looking toward the future, the city's largest gathering of tourism industry professionals included a special panel featuring five City of Albuquerque directors.

Along with the special panel, the meeting program included our Visit ABQ leadership touting the overall success of the travel and tourism industry in Albuquerque as well as its role as a vital economic engine for the city. As one of the largest private industries in the city, the tourism industry in Albuquerque:

• generates more than $2 billion annually
• employs over 43,000 people—the highest employment ever for the industry
• brings approximately 6.2 million visitors to the city each year, which generates about $69 million in local taxes/new money to the community

The program also reported increases in hotel performance, lodgers’ tax collections and increases in total room nights and estimated direct spend for business occurring.

• Hotel occupancy is up 3.6 percent and average daily rate increased 2.7 percent calendar year-to-date through October 2018, according to STR (formerly known as Smith Travel Research).
• As reported at the organization’s Annual Meeting held in August, fiscal year 2018 ended with a 7.3 percent increase in lodgers’ tax, which includes the new Airbnb collections that began in November 2017. Without the Airbnb collections, lodgers’ tax was still up 5.3 percent for FY18. Currently, fiscal year 2019 (which began July 1) is showing a 10.8 percent increase over FY18 for the first quarter. This percentage does include Airbnb data, which was not collected during the first quarter of FY18. However, even without the Airbnb collections, lodgers’ tax is up 7.3 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.
• Visit Albuquerque reported a strong outlook for 2019 meetings and conventions. The organization is currently slated to host the same number of citywide groups in 2019 as in the year prior, but with more room nights, higher attendance and greater direct spend associated with these groups—and the opportunity to book additional meetings and conventions in the coming year (link to PDFs containing citywide conventions and high-profile bookings for 2019 is included at the top of the release). Overall destination-wide bookings for 2019 total 113 groups with a 31 percent increase in total room nights and a 73 percent increase in estimated direct spend year-over-year (calendar year to-date).

Click here to read the full press release and learn more about the record numbers from 2018 and our new initiatives heading into 2019.

Visit ABQ at the 2018 Nursing Association Tradeshow

Director of Sales, Michael Lakoff, attended the 2018 Nursing Organizations Alliance (NOA) tradeshow, Nov 15-17, in Louisville, KY.  While at NOA he had the opportunity to meet with over 100 nursing organization executives and planners who were in attendance at the conference. Those executives and planners are responsible for and/or influence the decision regarding future meeting locations and were thrilled and keen to learn more about how Albuquerque would be an ideal fit for their future conference plans. 

13th Annual New Mexico Bowl Recap

The Utah State Aggies took the win at the 13th Annual New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, December 15, playing against the North Texas Mean Green. The game was played at the University of New Mexico Dreamstyle Stadium and was aired to fans across the country on ESPN and ESPN Radio.

Direct spending in Albuquerque resulting from the bowl game has averaged $3.5 million per year over the past five years. This year's game was attended by more than 25,300 people.

Drawing visitors to the city from the competing teams’ home-states and other football fans from around the region, Visit Albuquerque was present at the game, providing Official Albuquerque Visitors Guides and a fun photo opportunity. With the stadium as visitors’ backdrop, Visit ABQ staff helped to commemorate visits to the New Mexico Bowl with a photo inside the life-size Albuquerque picture frame, free of charge.

Leading up to the big game, Visit Albuquerque’s Board Chair, Jim Gay, spoke at a New Mexico Bowl Luncheon held December 5, and Visit ABQ President & CEO Tania Armenta joined many other industry leaders and Pro Football Hall of Fame athlete Tim Brown on stage at the NM Bowl Kickoff Luncheon on the Friday preceding the game. Visit Albuquerque also makes it easy for fans planning their trip to Albuquerque for the game, highlighting affordable deals and hotel packages and information on things to do in the city during the weekend of the game. Check out the webpage here.

Visit ABQ Launches New Locals’ Guide to Albuquerque Microsite and Videos

As millennial travel continues to increase, the industry is seeing a growing trend in the desire of travelers to experience the destinations they visit as if they were a local. Travelers want the inside track on what to do in the destination from the perspective of the passionate individuals who live and work there. Therefore, we are excited to announce the launch of the Locals’ Guide to Albuquerque.

Visit Albuquerque has created a digital city guide built by and focused on notable locals and what they love about our city. On LocalsGuide.VisitAlbuquerque.org, visitors can explore the city through the lens of our locals. Visitors to the city and locals alike can discover new, inspiring ideas for exploring Albuquerque. The goal of the site is to highlight the authentic spots throughout ABQ that locals love, and we worked with and spoke to notable locals throughout the city to curate the content included in this digital guide.

From inspiring videos, to interviews with locals, to neighborhood highlights and itineraries for all types of travelers, this Locals’ Guide will bring inspiration and trip ideas to those who love to explore.

Part II of Visions of the Hispanic World Museum Opening at Albuquerque Museum

The world-renowned exhibition Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library is currently in Albuquerque for the first stop on this exhibition’s first traveling tour.

The second phase of the exhibition, “Goya through the 1920s in Spain” opens December 22 and the full exhibit will be on display at the Albuquerque Museum until March 31, 2019.

The impressive exhibition includes over 200 of the most exceptional works spanning over 3,000 years in the collections of the Hispanic Society of America. A significant number of these works have not been exhibited outside of the Hispanic Society, and some have never before been exhibited.

Albuquerque is proud to have this globally-recognized exhibition here locally. Be sure to see this before it’s gone!

Albuquerque Ranked as a Top Place to Visit in 2019

AFAR has included Albuquerque in its list of top 25 worldwide destinations to visit in 2019.  Highlighted as a place to visit in autumn, the article mentions our city’s great outdoor opportunities, new developments, and popular spots that make Albuquerque so unique. Read the article here and be sure to share with your friends and followers.

In addition to the exciting AFAR ranking, we also have great news as millennial travel trends upward - the website HomeToGo recently produced a guide to the top 50 hottest destinations for millennial travelers - those born between 1981 and 1996. Albuquerque ranked #22 on the list of destinations for the generation that travels more than any other. The guide scored destinations based on points like social media potential, great deals, and nightlife.

Read the story and see the full list here.

Mayor Keller Announces Downtown Parking Updates for Holiday Season

Mayor Tim Keller recently announced additional improvements to downtown Albuquerque to increase walkability, and bicycle friendliness to attract more folks downtown. According to a press release, the City changed out stop lights to stop signs, re-painted roadways, all while adding 19 new parking spaces to the heart of the city.

“I have said before that cities rise and fall with the success of their downtown communities,” stated Mayor Tim Keller.  “We are working to make the area safer, and more walkable with these improvements, coupled with our new Downtown Public Safety District.  We also want people to shop local during the month of December, so we’re offering free two hour parking in the City.”

Mayor Keller’s recent downtown improvements include:

• 9 new parking spaces on 5th Street SW between Central Ave. and Gold Ave. SW
• 10 new parking spaces on 4th Street NW between Central Ave. and Copper Ave. NW
• New APD substation at the Alvarado Transportation Center
• “One Albuquerque: Engage” program to assist in filling vacant buildings and promote public safety
• “Sharrows” to allow bicyclists to safely use the entire lane on 5th Street NW between Central Ave. and Gold Ave. SW and 4th Street SW between Central Ave. and Copper Ave. NW
• Changing stop lights to four way stops on Silver Avenue SW and 4th/5th and Roma to enhance pedestrian and bicyclist visibility.

Mayor Keller also outlined the free parking plan during the holidays to help folks easily visit local businesses during the holiday shopping season. All metered parking spaces in the City of Albuquerque are free for 2 hours until December 25th, 2018. The free 2 hour parking started on Black Friday. The City of Albuquerque Parking Division will start enforcing metered parking again on December 26th, 2018.