Chapter 5 Homework

Hats off to New Mexico's Department of Tourism.  The agency is planning a marketing and PR campaign to upgrade the state's image and attract more tourists.  According to a Nov. 5 article in the Santa Fe New Mexican,  focus-group respondents living outside of New Mexico used these unflattering words to describe the state: arid and barren; dull; artsy; dreamcatchers; not a lot of activity.

Having spent a week in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas with my wife in early November, I say the PR campaign can't start soon enough.

Let the rest of the world know that there's truly something for all tastes in the Land of Enchantment.  Outdoors enthusiasts will appreciate the hiking and world-class skiing in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  There's also water sports in the Rio Grande and in several lakes.  Sightseers and photographers won't want to miss the jaw-dropping mesas, rocky outcroppings and rift valleys of the high desert.  History buffs will enjoy many museums and the Old Town District of Albuquerque, as well as the native dwellings of Bandolier National Monument and Taos Pueblo, both north of Santa Fe.  Art fanciers flock to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and dozens of galleries in  Santa Fe and Taos, while science and technology students can explore nuclear technology and World War II's Manhattan Project in the science museum in Los Alamos.  Those on a spiritual quest, from traditional Catholicism to New Age, will find plenty of shrines, cathedrals, churches, spas and other attractions.

Golden cottonwoods on the Rio Grande.

And that's just the north-central part of the state.

Snow-capped peaks reign high above meadows in Taos, NM.

Cathedral and adobe buildings of Santa Fe.

A marketing campaign needs to position the state as a first choice for those who want four seasons of fun--all amid low humidity, no mosquitoes and 300 sunny days per year.