February 2, 2021
(Press Staff Photo by Kendra Milligan)
Simon Sotelo with New Mexico Wild leads a hike last year on the West Fork of the Gila River in the Gila National Forest.
The New Mexico Tourism Department released a data dashboard last week to help New Mexicans understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state’s tourism industry on the county level, while making the prediction that, without state intervention, the state’s tourism economy would take up to seven years to recover.
※The numbers in this data dashboard and the findings from the Tourism Injury Index demonstrate how imperative it is that we invest in tourism recovery that supports every part of our state right now,” state Tourism Department Cabinet Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said in a press release.