Albuquerque’s hard-hit tourism industry is hopeful about a significant bounce-back in 2021, but a full recovery may still be years away.
During Visit Albuquerque’s annual meeting Tuesday, held via Zoom, organization president Tania Armenta provided an update on the challenges the city’s tourism industry has faced in 2020, as well as a potential path to recovery in 2021 and beyond.
During the meeting, Armenta said travel spending nationwide is expected to spike next year after dropping 44% in 2020 due to the pandemic and other restrictions, though some experts believe it may not fully recover until 2024. The key, Armenta said, is making sure Albuquerque is well-positioned to compete for business that was postponed due to the pandemic.
“We want to make sure we have Albuquerque out there in the forefront,” she said.
Prior to 2020, Albuquerque’s tourism industry was humming. In 2019, Albuquerque ranked in the top 10 markets for occupancy and revenue growth for hotels. But industries were affected more by the pandemic and associated restrictions. Armenta said New Mexico air travel, as measured by volume at airport checkpoints, declined 78% year-over-year in July – among the worst drops of any state over that time period.
As of August, employment in Albuquerque’s leisure and hospitality sector – which includes tourism – had lost 11,300 jobs year-over-year, nearly 25% of the total leisure and hospitality jobs in the city.
“Almost everyone on this call knows someone who has been affected by a layoff or a furlough,” Armenta said.
With interstate travel limited, Visit Albuquerque focused over the summer on encouraging New Mexicans to have staycations instead. The organization put together a series of banner ads asking locals to rediscover local attractions like the Sandia Peak Tramway.
“The idea is to really encourage people to be a visitor in their own city,” Armenta said
After restrictions began to ease in September, Armenta said the organization began to expand its focus to neighboring states with a series of ads on travel websites like Expedia and Travelocity.
At the meeting, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the pandemic could ultimately leave Albuquerque’s tourism industry in a more competitive position. He said the city’s COVID-19 infection rate – low compared to cities like Denver and Phoenix – combined with existing benefits like a lower cost of living. could help the city attract visitors if the virus lingers.
“I think, interestingly, there is a very, very compelling path for Albuquerque,” Keller said.
Armenta said the tourism industry is unlikely to fully recover in 2021, but said she’s encouraged by surveys showing about half of travelers feel comfortable traveling outside their communities.
With many conventions and other events being rescheduled for 2021, Armenta said the city will have to compete against peer cities to return to normal.
“The path to recovery is not going to be a straight line,” Armenta said.
Source: “Visit Albuquerque Looks to the Future“
Archives for September 2020
Landlords Focus on Improving Indoor Air Quality
Air measuring and ventilation are among the tools that can help buildings reopen.
Aviation Company Announces Major Expansion to NM
Ascent Aviation set to bring 360 jobs to Roswell Air Center
Arizona-based Ascent Aviation Services is planning to expand to the Roswell Air Center and hire 360 employees in New Mexico for airplane repair and maintenance services, Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes announced today.
Ascent Aviation Services has signed a letter of intent to commence operations at the Roswell Air Center. The firm is set to hire 130 employees in the first year, for a total of 360 over the next five years. Workers are expected to earn an average salary of $54,000 a year.
The State of New Mexico, through its Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) job creation fund, administered by the Economic Development Department, has pledged up to $4 million to support the project, while Chaves County has committed an additional $3 million in utility and infrastructure improvements. Ascent plans to invest $18 million into the New Mexico location. The project is expected to have a statewide economic impact of $545 million over 10 years.
“With its clear blue skies and competitive business climate, New Mexico continues to attract top-tier aerospace companies,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “The Roswell Air Center is a unique economic driver that will, with the support of my administration, continue to bring high-quality and high-paying jobs to the area, and I am glad to welcome Ascent Aviation to the state.”
“The Roswell Air Center has been a tremendous asset in Chaves County,” Cabinet Secretary Keyes said. “The state is fortunate to have LEDA and other incentives that can help Ascent and other companies expand or relocate in New Mexico and bring higher paying jobs to rural communities.”
Ascent is a one-stop shop for aircraft maintenance including storage, maintenance, reclamation, and fueling. It services narrow, wide-body, and regional aircraft, and has authorizations on Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer, and Airbus aircraft. It also services airlines, cargo operators, leasing companies, and VIPs.
Ascent has two facilities in Arizona with approximately 500 employees. Its locations at the Pinal Air Park and Tucson International Airport span 1,230 acres and five hangars.
As a former strategic bomber base for the U.S. Air Force that closed in 1967, the Roswell Air Center is already used by airlines and leasing companies for storage of unused jets and private planes. The facility has a 13,000-foot long runway and is suitable for larger, heavier wide-body planes. The 500 planes parked in Roswell often need maintenance, paint, or repairs, and they sometimes have to fly elsewhere for those services.
David T. Querio, Ascent Aviation Services President, sees the move to New Mexico as a great expansion opportunity. Ascent, along with the current aircraft support businesses, will make the Roswell Air Center a full-service operations center for maintenance, repair and overhaul.
“The Roswell Airport is an incredible facility with a large volume of aircraft already parked there as a result of COVID-19 and other factors limiting operations. Sometimes those planes have limited options for heavy maintenance and service and have to be ferried out. This facility will provide an option to keep those jobs and revenue in New Mexico,” Querio said.
Ascent’s leased space will cover 10 acres and the company plans to construct a maintenance hangar large enough for wide-body jets. The state and local investment in the project makes it possible to move forward sooner and with more certainty.
“The state and county incentives show that New Mexico has a strong desire to bring in new businesses and create good jobs. There can be a lot of pain associated with this type of expansion and everyone from Cabinet Secretary Keyes and Economic Division Director Mark Roper on down, including additional personnel from the State of New Mexico, Chaves County, and the City of Roswell, have all shown a desire to help. That has made this expansion possible,” Querio said.
Roswell rancher Tim Jennings, a former state senator who has been an advocate for the air center, said the project will jump start utility extensions in the public corridors adjacent to the land – and that investment will attract even more businesses and new jobs.
“Everyone has worked together and this project is a win-win for the community. Roswell is very affordable, and there is a big market for this work in the airline industry,” Jennings said. He added that many of the students who earn a degree in air-frame mechanics at the ENMU-Roswell Branch Campus and moved to Dallas where they service big jets “will now be able to come back home.”
Chaves County Commission Chair Will Cavin said, “Chaves County heartily welcomes the Ascent Aviation team. It is our privilege to facilitate this new partnership with them and the State of New Mexico that was made possible by the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corporation, former State Senator Tim Jennings, and the City of Roswell. ”
“The City of Roswell is excited about the new large hangar project with Ascent Aviation,” Mayor Dennis Kintigh added. “Roswell has emerged as a significant player in the worldwide aviation Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) industry. The Ascent hangar will substantially expand the capabilities and options here in Roswell. Together, with our existing facilities and other planned enhancements, we aim to be the worldwide leader in aviation MRO operations.”
“We are excited to welcome Ascent Aviation’s expansion of their operations to Roswell-Chaves County. The many jobs they will create in the growing aviation MRO industry here underscores our vision of future growth for aviation industries at the Roswell Air Center,” Mike Espiritu, President of the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corp., said. “We appreciate the high-tech job opportunities, capital investment, and partnerships with Ascent and our community and pledge our full support to their success.”
Ascent also plans to offer scholarship and internship opportunities for students studying aircraft maintenance at Eastern New Mexico University in Roswell and Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque.
“Wherever possible we are looking to provide training and assistance so we can grow our own mechanics. We know the importance of bringing something of this magnitude to Roswell,” Querio said.
Ascent Aviation Services is based at Pinal Air Park in Marana, AZ, and is sister companies with Ascent Aviation Services, LLC located at Tucson International Airport.
Source: Economic Development Department (EDD)
Traffic Follows Jobs, and Traffic in ABQ is Down
Six months into the global COVID-19 pandemic, does it seem like traffic is as bad as ever in the metro area?
Well, if you’re driving on Paseo del Norte west of Eagle Ranch, you’re right.
But if you’re driving through the area’s job and activity centers – U.S. 550 in Bernalillo; Southern and N.M. 528 in Rio Rancho; the Cottonwood Mall area and the Coors corridor north of Interstate 40 on the West Side; Journal Center; or Downtown and around UNM/CNM – especially in the mornings – it’s nowhere close.
The Mid-Region Council of Governments maintains that’s largely because the Albuquerque Statistical Area lost 44,900 jobs from March to April, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers. And many folks started working from home. So when you don’t have to drive to work during morning rush hour, well, you don’t.
Traffic stops
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a stay-at-home order effective March 23, closing “nonessential” businesses – most retail stores, movie theaters, gyms, salons, liquor stores, churches, etc. – and ordering most other employees to work from home if possible. Schools quickly moved to distance learning, and large gatherings including family get-togethers were banned.
Nathan Masek, a transportation planner with MRCOG, says, “Approximately 155 locations within the metro area were identified for the specific purpose of providing a mechanism to assess regional impacts (of the pandemic) on roadway volumes and to gauge the timing of a return to a ‘new normal.’ ”
The traffic data shows that many residents listened to the governor, especially when it came to driving to our employment centers around 8 a.m.
In April 2019 the New Mexico Department of Transportation recorded around 90,000 vehicles a day on Paseo del Norte at Rio Grande. A year and a pandemic later, there were around 55,000.
On the one river crossing that Masek has data for, traffic on Alameda went from just over capacity – anyone who has sat idling in the backups understands that – to almost half-capacity in April.
From March 23 to May 28, MRCOG data shows a huge drop in daily trips around the metro area, down 32.5%. The area’s busy employment and education centers showed the largest declines.
The central business district, aka Downtown, was hardest hit, with a 48.1% decline in traffic volume. Journal Center – where most reporters began telecommuting rather than driving in – recorded a 47.9% drop. Southeast Heights was down 42.1%; Northeast Heights 34.7%; Far Northeast Heights 34.5%; North Valley 31.7%; Rio Rancho 31.1%; Northwest Mesa 29.9%; Far North Valley 27.2%; Southwest Mesa 24.4%; South Valley 22.3% and Valencia County 17.6%.
Dig a little deeper into times and routes, and you find Menaul east of Eubank, which brings drivers into the city’s core, went from close to 500 cars around 8 a.m. to 150. Coal west of Broadway, which feeds Downtown, University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College parking slots, dropped from close to 300 vehicles at 8 a.m. to around 70. Dellyne west of Coors, which takes drivers to major arterial Coors and then Paseo to the north or Interstate 40 to the south, went from 200 vehicles in the morning to around 100.
Afternoon trips were also down, but not nearly as much. Masek says, “In COVID the a.m. is gone … a.m. is affected much more than p.m. Because of impacts to jobs, overall travel was reduced.”
Traffic restarts
The next three months, June 8 to Aug. 20, as the governor eased restrictions and some businesses opened back up, brought a partial return to traditional traffic patterns, with trips down only 16.6% from pre-coronavirus 2019. And while those parts of town without dense job and retail areas were almost back to normal – the South Valley was down just 2.2% – business areas were still far less congested than in 2019, with drops for this time period ranging from 21.7% in Rio Rancho to 34.7% Downtown. Coal has had even less traffic than at the beginning of the pandemic orders – about 50 vehicles were recorded traveling on it around 8 a.m. in August.
Meanwhile, a return to normal has a downside. In August, Alameda at the river was just under capacity.
Counting continues, and so far, Masek says, the first two weeks of Cycle 3 appear to mirror the June-August data.
Traffic stays the same
As for which part of town has had the most trouble abiding by the stay-at-home orders – and there are myriad reasons, including that not everyone can telecommute – MRCOG traffic patterns recorded a bounce on Paseo del Norte west of Eagle Ranch. At 8 a.m. last year around 250 vehicles were on the road; that dropped to just under 200 in April, then rebounded to around 250 in August. Ditto for 4 p.m., with just under 350 vehicles on the road last year, 250 in April and 350 in August. And Dellyne’s only drop was in the morning.
Data takeaways
As we all try to heed the governor’s warning from Thursday to redouble mask-wearing and social distancing efforts, and as daily case counts tick upward after the Labor Day holiday and ahead of flu season, the traffic data shows us where we can do better.
And it gives us important information for the long term. Masek says the big takeaway is the area is recovering from the blow the pandemic dealt, though morning rush hour as well as employment and activity centers are taking longer.
And the planner in him says that could provide an important opportunity to make significant adjustments in how and where we work, go to school and shop.
“These times are allowing us to reconsider how we travel, and what modes we might use and how we might use flexible work schedules to avoid congested times on our roadways,” he says.
