By Jo Mixon
This week’s featured “I Know Jo” business of the week is Tourism Association of New Mexico, TANM.
This week my story is a little different and that’s why I am a day late in getting it out to you. On Weds. and Thurs. I attended the Research & Marketing Conference in Albuquerque put on by TANM, of which we are a member. There was record attendance this year with 147 constituents. Delegates from all over the state were there including our neighbors from Red River, Taos, Cimarron, Ute Park, Wagon Mound, Las Vegas, and Raton.
Speakers included David Sheatsley, Director of Marketing and research for the US Travel Assoc in D.C. He discussed the ups, downs, twists, and turns in the tourism industry pre and post recession and what the 2010 census tells us about destination marketing. And he did this with humor. Bill Siegel, founder and CEO of Longwood’s International showcased for us examples that provided dramatic and convincing evidence that destination marketing is a wise investment for taxpayers, even in difficult economic times. Jim Lee of Cliff Dwellers Digital discussed action plans for optimizing analytics for online marketing including social media. And Steve McKee, President of Wallwork Cleveland gave a powerful presentation on sparks, both negative and positive. He used these examples to define how some brands catch fire while others fizzle.
Then yesterday, New Mexico Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson shared the New Mexico Tourism Department’s new strategic plan to give New Mexico a new “brand” to ignite sparks of tourism to our great state and the strategic groundwork and tactics we can all use to bring this plan to life!
TANM partners with New Mexico Tourism Dept. and the Tourism Commission in many ways, including conferences. The Research Conference I just attended as well as the Governor’s Conference on Tourism which is coming to Taos, May 14-16, 2012. Sharon Schultz has been CEO of TANM for 5 years. She has been on board with the organization since 1995, serving as President in 2004. This is TANM’s 25th anniversary year. The organization has 245 members from all over the state of New Mexico. Their mission is to be the advocate, educator, and unified voice of New Mexico’s tourism industry through collaboration. Sharon travels the state to build membership, speak to committees about the value of tourism to the NM economy and emphasize the importance of business/individuals participating in their organization. Tom Rutherford is their full time year round lobbyist and Sharon is also a registered at the legislature. Tourism is such a valuable source of income for all of our businesses.
For more information about TANM or how your business can become a member, visit their website at www.tanm.org or give Sharon a call at 505-345-5553. And be sure to save the dates to the Govenor’s Conference in May.
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