Selling San Juan

New Mexico Business Journal, July-August, 1999

More and more tourists are buying into the county's attractions

Farmington Convention and Visitors Bureau recently moved into a new facility called the Gateway Center and it's made a marked difference. The bureau's executive director, Becky Walling, says in her old and much smaller office she received some 4,000 visitors in 1998; between the Gateway facility's April opening and early June, 8,000 people had already stopped by for tourism information.

Many travelers come through Farmington not so much because it's a destination in itself, but because it stands at the center of some of the nation's most spectacular and fascinating outdoor and cultural spots. Mountain bikers come to the region for its many trails. Anglers come to fish Navajo Lake and the trout-filled San Juan River. Culturally oriented tourists visit the various ancient Indian ruins in the area, including Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins in Bloomfield; they also come to explore the ancient, living cultures of the Navajo Nation and the Hopi tribe just across the border in Arizona.

By improving the bureau's access to tourists, Walling says, her organization finds many more opportunities to "sell" the area, touting its world-class Pinon Hills Golf Course, its outdoor amphitheater and Outdoor Summer Theater (now featuring a locally written historical play, Black River Traders), and its many trading posts and other amenities. "That way," she says, "we can give them reasons to stay for maybe one or two more nights."

Tourism has a profound impact on the San Juan County economy, and last year's five percent increase in lodgers tax receipts indicates that it is growing. Walling says "people are just becoming more and more aware of all that this area has to offer."

The Navajo Reservation, which overlaps the county, may bring even more tourists to the area when it realizes plans to enhance its "cultural-tourism" offerings. Tony Skrelunas, executive director of the Navajo Nation's Division of Economic Development, says the tribe plans to help local tribal residents develop homestead-visitation programs, where tourists can help with sheep herding and traditional-food preparation and perhaps sit around a campfire outside a hogan at night, listening to traditional Navajo tales. Walling says the demand for such alternative tourist activities is high, "but people want to find ways of doing it without offending." Skrelunas agrees, and says the Navajo Nation plans to develop its cultural tourism activities in a "sensitive, controlled way."