As one measure of the impact on hotels and other places of lodging, first-quarter lodger’s tax reports in Las Cruces showed a 41 percent decline over the same period last year: $361,766 from July through September of this year compared to $609,237 in 2019.
Moreover, total revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30 amounted to $1,869,720, or 85 percent of what the city brought in the previous year.
The tourism department said the stimulus would boost efforts to bring visitors back to New Mexico once the public health emergency is over, nourishing local economies. It called for three consecutive annual appropriations of $25 million, arguing it would pay off in $2 billion of saved revenue each year.
“The impact on the hospitality/tourism industry has been tremendous and any stimulus monies would be welcomed,” Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce director Debbi Moore remarked, while adding that the details would matter.
“It doesn’t reference how it will be distributed though,” Moore continued. “Any insights into those deliverables and accountabilities? Would it be grants or loans? I wonder which state agency would distribute the funds, if appropriated.”
“Tourism is a major driver of our local economy, so any support for the industry will be especially impactful here in Las Cruces,” Visit Las Cruces executive director Rochelle Miller-Hernandez wrote. “Although we don’t know what the proposed funds will be used for yet, we do know that marketing is going to be critical as restrictions start to ease and competition for travelers continues to grow.”
Absent a “substantial investment” in tourism, the department said recovering to pre-pandemic levels of travel-related economic activity could take seven years.
Source: Las Cruces Sun News