Only in El Paso!
The city’s Destination El Paso department provided this presentation as part of the backup material for a city council agenda item on the Monday, March 18, 2019 special city council meeting.
The special city council meetings are not well attended by the public so the city likes to handle things that they don’t want us to know about during those meetings.
The topic was a presentation about the results we have been getting out of the department.
One slide showed their measurements for fiscal 2018:
Then they presented their 2019 fiscal year slide. The fiscal year starts in September. The end of February would mean that half of the fiscal year had passed.
They point out a 14.6% increase in the number of people that attended conventions and meetings in 2019 over 2018.
What they don’t point out is the 14% drop in income in 2019. Evidently getting people to meetings is important to them and the money that gets generated is not as important.
Then they tell city council what to expect for the rest of the year:
They show Sun City CRITS (“a premier cycling series”) will have 2,800 in attendance and will generate $1.1 million for the local economy.
RISE cycling symposium will have 2,500 in attendance and will generate $2.2 million. This will be their inaugural event. In other words they have never done this before and have no idea what their results will be.
Then they go on to tell us what to expect after this year:
The department did not address what the have for us in 2020 or 2021. Instead they tell us that in 2022 they think some things will happen. Add up the numbers, they aren’t very good.
Then they drop this slide on city council:
In the private sector changes would be made. This however is El Paso.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Just another City office filled with overpaid minions, blowing off millions in TAXPAYER, working peoples money. Maybe treat touristas like the Sanctuary City of El Taxo, treats Illegals. Pay them to come HERE, give them lots of FREE stuff. If it’s FREE they will come. A waste, another City “Project” to flush OUR money down the toilet.
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Actually, the last slide isn’t that bad. It’s March and the YTD (year-to-date) column appears to reflect a trend consistent with prior years. Room nights from conferences were down, but room nights from athletic events are up. I agree, it would be good to see more on 2020 and 2021–wondering if I-10 Connect is creating issues there since it tears up the main corridor outside downtown.
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I may be wrong, but I think that future slide is telling about everything new that’s lined up between now and 2022.
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So those trolleys are really pulling them in 🙂
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I do not trust the city’s attribution of hotel nights to sporting events. They are motivated to inflate those numbers in part to justify the ballpark and they have no way of knowing how many people who attended sporting events actually stayed in hotels.
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Destination El Paso is organized as the parent of two branded operating divisions: Visit El Paso and El Paso Live.
Visit El Paso is responsible for destination marketing for the City of El Paso and includes Convention Development and Meeting Planning Services; Tourism Development to include management of two Visitor Information Centers, as well as advertising and media relations. El Paso Live is responsible for venue and event management for City of El Paso-owned venues: Judson F. Williams Convention Center, Abraham Chavez Theatre, Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre, and McKelligan Canyon Amphitheatre & Pavillion. Each operating division is represented as a brand with its own website and social media presence.
For tourist/visitor information email us at info@destinationelpaso.com or to book a facility
please contact us at booking@destinationelpaso.com.
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