Visit Las Cruces211 N. Water Street, Las Cruces, New Mexico

VisitLasCruces.com575-541-2444, cvb@lascrucescvb.org

2015-16 annual report2016-17 marketing plan

Poolside at Hotel Encanto on the Green Chile Walk of Flame

who we areThe Las Cruces Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) is the official tourism marketing department for the City of Las Cruces. The CVB serves as a catalyst for the area’s hospitality industry; working in concert to build a year-round destination that offers a quality experience to all visitors as well as sustainable economic and social growth for the local community. Toward this end, the CVB plays a leading role in defining and branding Las Cruces as a desirable des-tination offering a variety of activates, attractions and events now and in the future.

CVB STAFFExecutive Director

Philip J. San Filippo

Director of Sales & ServiceJennifer Bales

Director of Marketing & Communications

Chris Faivre

Convention Sales ManagerAlbert Herrera

Sports Sales ManagerEd Carnathan

Tourism Sales ManagerRochelle Miller-Hernandez

Sales/Services CoordinatorElizabeth Vega

Administative AssistantVeronica Quezada

Communications SpecialistKarla Walton

Distribution SpecialistSergio Salinas

Visitor Information SpecialistSonia Bañuelos

what we doThe CVB works nationally and internationally to enhance travel and tourism to Las Cruces and the immediate surrounding area. Our five full-time sales staff works to target the meetings and conven-tions, sports, and group travel markets in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico with research-driven marketing programs touting sports, arts and culture, food-based opportunities and year-round sunny weather. The CVB also partners with local attractions and industry partners to develop initiatives that strengthen the travel and tour-ism market within the city.

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cvb organizational chart

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cvb advisory boardCHAIR

Shannon Duffy, Business Travel Sales Manager, Heritage Hotels & Resorts

MEMBERSVice Chair - Ana Berrum, General Manager, TownPlace Suites

Vince Vaccaro, Owner, Lorenzo’s RestaurantDebra Marks, Executive Director, Las Cruces Symphony Association

Craig Massey, Communications Director, New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum

FY 2016 has been another banner year for the CVB. As we strive to bring more visitors to Las Cruces, we are also committed to ensuring that the experiences our visitors receive are second to none. In FY16, we have taken many positive steps in building the visitor experience. We are now known to those on the outside of the city as “Visit Las Cruces”. This change is just one small way we try to be more welcoming to those visiting our great city. We have worked in concert with the New Mexico Hospitality Association to establish a tourism customer service program, and I am proud to say that Las Cruces will launch its “A2D” training program in the coming months. “A2D” stands for “Arrival to Destination”, and our goal is to make certain that every visitor coming to Las Cruces has a positive experience during their entire stay.

We have also invested substantially in digital marketing and social media allowing us to communicate to a much broader audience than ever before. The proof of our success is best illustrated by the rapid growth of

our Las Cruces Country Music Festival. Our music video “Las Cruces”, written and performed by Bri Bagwell has turned into a great success being viewed by over 150,000 people. It continues to receive accolades and awards. In spite of our success, we continue to strive to do better. Visit Las Cruces has just completed a complete audit and analysis of our website. Changes in web design are now currently underway, and an improved website will be launched in the next several months that will be content-rich and easier to navigate.

Behind everything we do is a committed team of top professionals who work tirelessly to promote Las Cruces to the rest of the world. We are proud of our city, and we are proud of all we have managed to do on a budget a fraction of the size of most of our competitors. However, none of this would not be possible without the great support we receive from the community at large, our advisory board, the Friends of Visit Las Cruces, our city administrative staff and the City Council.

Sincerely,Phil San Filippo

executive director’s letter

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year in reviewSALESThe staff continues working on creating new expe-riences for visitors around the city. And this year with the addition of a few more breweries to Las Cruces we created the Ale Trail. And together with a new transportation company we now have VIP wine tours available to our visitors and clients. We continue our partnership with the Consulate Gen-eral of Mexico and extended the Mexican Cultural Series to include several free performances featur-ing some of the top visual and performing artists from Mexico. In March, the Conventions Sales Department hosted a receiption for those who plan meeting at New Mexico State University in order to reach out to the decision makers in the various departments and let them know all what the CVB can do for them in planning their meet-ings. Another way in which the CVB has continued to create a positive experience for visitors is by hosting workshops that support the development of the local hospitality industry. In September of 2015, we held a workshop on how to run a festival

or event. The workshop was a great success and gave valuable information to many groups who al-ready run events as well as groups looking to start new festivals or events. In May 2016 we hosted the Governor’s Conference on Tourism and a few

staff were asked to present a work-shop or be part of a panel. We have a lot of exciting ideas and programs in the works for the coming year and are anxious to get them off the ground and running!

MARKETINGFY16 was another great year for the marketing efforts of the CVB under the Explore. Experience. Discover. brand. For every $1 spent on marketing Las Cruces, $36 was generated in economic impact. Through our public relations efforts we generated $770,230 in free media exposure for Las Cruces and the Las Cruces Country Music Festival in vari-ous regional and national publications. Social media audiences increased, in-cluding a 41% increase in the Facebook

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audience for the Country Music Festival which helped to generate a 124% increase in ticket presales. Overall, our social me-dia program also helped to increase website traffic by 40%, including an 11% increase in traffic to mobile phones.

LAS CRUCES CONVENTION CENTER FY2016 was another successful year at the Las Cruces Convention Center. Spectra Venue Man-agement has focused on booking conventions for Las Cruces and has grown this sector of the business for the fourth year in a row. 15 conven-tions were booked by the convention center sales team inside the fiscal year which has increased every year from six conventions booked in FY2013. Conventions represent the highest grossing event type at the facility and the number of conventions have more than doubled over the last two years. The team at the convention center contin-ues to provide top notch customer service which is continually recognized by cus-tomers and community partners by way of testimonials and customer surveys. Spectra Venue Management continues to prioritize partnership and stewardship within the community and has proven to be a strong partner for the City of Las Cruces.

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lodgers taxcollections

The CVB is funded through the collection of Lodg-ers Tax, a 5% tax assessed to hotel room nights booked in Las Cruces. The tax is a pass-through tax used by the CVB to market and promote Las Cruces as a destination for leisure and business travel. The tax generates a little over $2 million dollars each year.

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LAS CRUCES COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVALThe Las Cruces Country Music

Festival continues to grow and

become a signature event for the

state of New Mexico. The fourth

annual festival was held April

29-May 1, 2016 and due in

large part to our aggressive

and targeted social media

program, this year’s event was

the most successful year ever!

A 124% increase in ticket

presales resulted in a 24%

increase in ticket revenue,

and a 13%

increase

in

attenance. A total of 864 tickets

were sold to attendees who lived

over 1.5 hours from Las Cruces,

a distance we targeted for

overnight stays. That was an

increase from the previous total of

259.

As the festival continues to

receive nation-wide

coverage, we are

confident this is an event

that will continue to grow

and bring even more

visitors in the years

to come.

Cam on staage at the 2016 Las Cruces Country Music Festival

Dustin Lynching performing at the 2015 Las Cruces Country Music Festival

NM Farm & Ranch Musuem

The future looks very bright for Las Cruces tourism, and 2017 should prove to be a very favorable year. The CVB will be moving into its new home that will be part of the Amador project. Besides a facelift of the historic Amador hotel, the Amador projects includes restaurants, a pub, coffee shop and a new office for Visit Las Cruces. In the center of this complex, there will be a courtyard that will make a perfect venue for outdoor events. Our visitors cen-ter will be upgraded and modernized, and situated at the gateway to downtown Las Cruces. Plans are also underway for expansion to the Las Cruces Convention Center with a much anticipated hotel adjacent to the building. The downtown plaza will be opening soon making another reason for our downtown area to begin taking shape. Providing a quality visitor experience is one of the top objectives for the CVB, and we are proud the A2D (Arrival to Departure) customer experience training will be launched sometime this fall. This training program is part of the New Mexico Hospi-tality Association’s statewide project for customer

experience enrichment, and we are proud that Las Cruces is one of the first cities to roll out this program.

The CVB just completed a thorough audit of its website in order to provide visitors with the best information in an easy to navigate format. Every aspect of the website experience has been thor-oughly scrutinized to ensure that we are providing excellent information in a user-friendly environ-ment. As a result, an updated website will be launched before the end of the year that will be content-rich and one or two clicks away from the desired information.

In FY2017, the CVB will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Las Cruces Country Music Festival. Our goal is to make this year’s event one that all residents of Las Cruces can be proud to call their own, and a festival that will bring in more visitors than ever before. Thanks to the support of the City Council and the people of Las Cruces, our Country Music Festival has grown to be a signature event for all of New Mexico.

2016-17 sales & marketing plan

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Roadrunner Landmark on I-10 west of Las Cruces

Finally, we look to grow business and support eco-nomic growth in Las Cruces. Our staff is dedicated to promoting our city, and we take pride in all that we do in support of attracting visitors to share in the great beauty and desirability of the Las Cruces way of life.

MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONSThe goal is to raise awareness of Las Cruces as a viable meeting destination. Increasing our partner-ship on a local, state and regional level, will allow us to build relationships with meeting planners, association partners and with Industry partners. By doing so, we will increase generations of room nights within all markets.

• Focus on corporate, SMERF (social, military, education, religious, fraternal, state government, and in state associations.

• Attend tradeshows and networking events designed to reach all markets on a regional and national level. This will allow us to promote the growth of our industry partners and the possible expansion of the Las Cruces Convention Center. Incorporate specifically targeted sales blitzes in cities outside of New Mexico.

• Be more involved on a state level with the New Mexico Meeting Professionals Interna tional Association, allowing Las Cruces to gain further exposure. Look into possibly joining CO and AZ chapters.

• Update our meeting planner guide.

• Continue to gain exposure for Las Cruces through mailings, telemarketing, newsletters and new videos that target the meetings market.

• Host a personalized mini- FAM Tour with no more than 3-5 meeting planners within the year. By keeping the tour small, it allows us to build our relationship with them and better service the meeting planners needs.

SPORTSIncrease the generation of room nights in Las Cruces from sports-tourism business by bringing new sporting events to the city that will provide high returns and promote Las Cruces as a destina-tion to participants and media.

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MEETINGS MEAN BUSINESSThe Arizona Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) recently held their annual meeting in Las Cruces and took back with them 405 lbs. of green chile and 10 cases of New Mex-ico wine! This was the first time they held their annual meeting in New Mexico.

• Increase number of spectators at current sporting events.

• Ensure a positive experience for participants and spectators by working with industry partners to ensure a high level of awareness of incoming events and participant needs.

• Continue to attend tradeshows and membership meetings with a focus on introducing or re-introducing a new sporting event in Las Cruces.

• Work with state and association officials to work towards bringing state-level high school championship events to Las Cruces.

• Work with city departments to develop a streamlined sports facility rental process.

GROUP TRAVELRaise awareness of Las Cruces as a desired group tour and individual traveler destination, as well as continue to increase room night generation through sales, marketing and education initiatives.

• Generate new and modify current travel itineraries to meet the needs of evolving travelers.

• Attend tradeshows and sales generating events designed to target desired markets. • Increase regional awareness through collaboration with surrounding destination partners and serving on New Mexico Tourism Department Regional Marketing Board.

• Create a lasting impression for current tour group and visitors to generate future visits through personal greetings, welcome bags and complimentary postcards to send to family and friends.

• Increase knowledge of industry and market by completing Certified Tourism Industry Specialist education through the American Bus Tour Association.

• Create greater social media presence in tourism market, as well as continue quarterly e-newsletter which includes a more visual appeal through video.

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MARKETING DEPARTMENT Expand brand awareness and interaction by build-ing on the current CVB brand and through further utilization of the “Find Your Reason” campaign to reach a broader audience in both traditional and digital spaces.

• Develop original, shareable and engaging content for social media and blog.

• Redesign Visitlascruces.com content to be more direct and user friendly to visitors both planning trips as well as when they are in Las Cruces.

• Use social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to grow our social audience, build brand ambassadors, and to spread the word about things going on in Las Cruces. • Continue to collect and utilize data in order to create a reliable and accurate profile of people visiting Las Cruces.

• Expand visitor email database.

• Continue to generate video content scaled for YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Build on the success of the previous year’s social media and marketing efforts to increase Las Cruces Country Music Festival ticket sales.

• Use Facebook ad tools like Canvas and Carousel to be able to provide more event info on Facebook.

• take advantage of new features in Instagram to share the CMF experience with a broader audience.

• Work with public relations team to generate earned media for CMF.

• Develop partnerships with traditional media to supplement social media marketing efforts.

Kettle corn vendor at the Las Cruces Farmers Market

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