Tourism as an Economic Development Tool

2010 Impacts
The De Baca County Extension Service, in coordination with the De Baca County 4-H Council and the Fort Sumner Ranch Rodeo committee, helped to plan and coordinate the annual WRCA Sanctioned Fort Sumner Ranch Rodeo. Twenty teams from across New Mexico, Texas and Arizona competed in the 2 day event which hosted 5-6 member teams and their families. This was an excellent opportunity for tourism and economic development, highlighting and showcasing De Baca County to the rest of the state and adjouning states as well. A total of 250-300 people attended the function each day.

*The agent and County Extension staff worked with funds from the local Community Development Coorporation, the Chamber of Commerce,the Village of Fort Sumner and the County, to develop and construct and the 2010 County Agriculture, Natural Resource and tourism display at the State Fair. A total of 300 people a day viewed the booth during the two week run of the state fair. In addition, the booth was honored again with the first place ribbon among county displays. This is the 4rd year in the row that De Baca County has won the booth display where 20 counties compete for recognition of there agriculture and natural resources.
*Fairground Improvements--In 2009/2010, the Agent was able to continue adding to the De Baca County Fairgrounds improvements by writing for funding from the Governor's Rodeo Council and local entities such as ENMR to acquire funding. The funding was designated to complete the final phases of the overall strategic grounds plan: build a set of ADA compliant restrooms and renovate the announcer stand which will allow future economic impact on the Fort Sumner community through arena and grounds activity. The Agent worked with the County to contract with a local contracting business in building the restrooms and upgrading the electricity to those restroom units. In addition, the announcer stand will be rennovated and upgraded. The restroom project has been completed and the the beginning of the announcer stand project is underway.

Pulled together a committee to develop a Customer Service Training for businesses in our area. . Worked with the committee for 2 ½ months to plan, prepare, and advertise the training. It was decided to use the FISH video and curriculum. The committee consisted of 5 people who are involved in the service industry and each took a part in presenting the workshops. Two of the members helped agent with advertising the workshops. Advertising was done by radio and newspaper, hand delivering flyers to businesses with a verbal invitation, and a personal mailed invitation, along with newsletter including the chamber of commerce and the Extension Service. Participants received information on what quality customer service is, things to do in Quay County, and how to deal with difficult customers. Three workshops were held. The first was for managers and only had 3 participants of which only 1 was a manager. The other two were for employees. There were 43 people representing 8 businesses in the employee workshops. Evaluations showed that 49% really enjoyed the workshop and 33% liked it. 81% learned something that will help their workday. 94% will try to make a change in their work habits. And 79% felt that they were better able to answer the question, “What is there to do around here?” as a result of this workshop.

Worked with a committee of six to plan a street festival for the News Channel 10 Summer Celebration Tour. The Summer Tour is something the news station from Amarillo does for one week each summer and a New Mexico town has never been represented. Before the station can come, there had to be many things in place including advertisers, an appropriate location, and equipment to hold a talent competition. The news station personnel handled the advertising component and the committee handled the rest. The committee had 4 weeks to put it together and advertise to get community people involved. Approximately 1200 people attended the event which started at 3:00 p.m. and ended at 10:00 p.m. A big concern was having enough food booths. Two extension clubs and a 4-H Club helped by providing food booths and we had 1 restaurant. Activities arranged by the committee included musical groups, an art show, a talent show, jalapeno eating contest, tug-a-war, dipper derby, tortilla throwing contest, pie throwing, and watermelon eating contest. Agent was completely responsible for the tortilla throwing and jalapeno eating contests and the advertising. Agent also helped with logistics and soliciting vendors. We also had a movie under the stars. News Channel 10 from Amarillo broadcasted their show from the festival. In addition to the activities we had approximately 30 vendors sharing information about their organization or selling items. The event was held in the parking lot of the convention center and in the adjoining ball field. News channel 10 is already talking about coming back next year because they were impressed with the response from the community. One motel owner mentioned that he had people come to stay at this motel as a result of watching the news broadcast.

Arranged for a training for the members of the council on how to use the internet to promote Tucumcari for free. Those attending committed to spending 1 hour a week searching blogs on Tucumcari and responding with positive comments about the community. Several members have created Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages and post positive things and happenings in the community. Three members are continuing to do so, even without the council.

The faces in the organizations that deal with tourism in Quay County have changed a lot this year. We have lost several members as they have gone on to different jobs. Agent recruited 4 new members to the Quay County Tourism Council. The council planned and worked on several projects including a business passport, hospitality training, and new brochures. As money becomes tighter and people are stretched further, they have less time to put into organizing and promoting events or projects. With turnover and changes within the City of Tucumcari and the Historical Museum our year event, Quay County Heritage Dayze was cancelled for 2009. Also the group hosting the Six Shooter Siding Festival have abandoned that event. The decision was made in June to disband the Tourism Council due to lack of interest and hopefully help the Chamber of Commerce develop a Tourism Committee.