SANTA FE – The New Mexico Tourism Department (NMTD) has announced it is supporting 16 tourism-related events across New Mexico through the department’s newly-established Tourism Event Growth and Sustainability Program.

The program provides support in the form of sponsorship, cooperative advertising, and an event accelerator. NMTD is supporting 6 events through sponsorship, 5 events through cooperative marketing support and 5 events through the event accelerator. In total, $177,000 will be awarded to recipients for fiscal year 2023.

“Few things provide greater opportunity for visitors and fellow New Mexican to experience our culture and community than our cherished fairs, festivals and events. Tourism-related events also serve as vital economic drivers for communities of all sizes throughout New Mexico. Not only will this program support the growth and expansion of established tourism events, it will also support a new generation of tourism-related events,” Cabinet Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said.

The Bernalillo Indian Arts Festival is one example of a participant in the event accelerator channel of the program. NMTD will work with the Town of Bernalillo, the Bernalillo Community Museum and the Authentic Native Arts Association to support data analytics operations, partnership development and youth participation, among other forms of technical support.

“This program empowers community stakeholders to develop tourism at a grassroots level,” Bernalillo Community Museum Director Emily Stovel said. “NMTD continues to build and enhance programs that invite more collaboration with tourism representatives, and we’re excited to partner up with NMTD through this program.”

The program will support tourism-related events in 12 different destinations throughout New Mexico. Supported events will take place between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

Through the event accelerator, participants will work with a team of experts that will provide technical support intended to establish best practices and scale operations in a sustainable manner. Technical support will include an online discoverability audit and strategic planning for optimizing digital presence and online ticketing. Participants may receive up to $5,000 for implementation of deliverables through this portion of the program.

The event sponsorship channel of support provides up to $50,000 in direct sponsorship support for participants. Through the cooperative marketing support option, recipients participate in a 2:1 cost sharing model on behalf of NMTD that provides grants up to $10,000 for partners.

Below is a complete list of program participants for FY23: