New Mexico's Decade-Long Branding Campaign Has Its Magic and Mistakes

New Mexico visitor spend jumped more than 30 percent in the past two years, with the state seeing a significant tourism boom partly because of the New Mexico Tourism Department’s longstanding tourism campaign, New Mexico True. 

More than a decade after its original release, the state refreshed the campaign in 2021 to rebuild its tourism industry coming out of the pandemic. And while the brand resonates with many tourism stakeholders, including visitors, and locals, there has been pushback from indigenous communities that the campaign encapsulates “colonial ideologies” as well as questions about the darker impact that tourism growth could have on New Mexico. 

Before diving into the creative aspects, let’s break down the numbers: The New Mexico tourism economy entered 2020 with nine years of record-breaking growth with visitor spending jumping 29 percent between 2013 and 2019. After the pandemic-induced drop in 2020, visitor spending the following year surpassed 2019 levels as 39.2 million visitors to the state injected $7.2 billion into the New Mexico economy.

The New Mexico True campaign was first launched in 2012 with the aim of showcasing the state as a land of adventure steeped in culture. It became a well-regarded brand that was eventually adopted by regional destinations and tourism companies for marketing purposes. 

New Mexico's former cabinet secretary of tourism, Monique Jacobson, led New Mexico True's original development alongside the department’s advertising