Now that the second run of the National Championship Air Races and Air Show at the Roswell Air Center has ended, the review of this year’s event has commenced.
Fred Telling, director of the Reno Air Racing Association board and the organization’s CEO, told the Roswell City Council last week that the economic impact of the air races will be studied by the University of New Mexico.
“As soon as those results are available, we’ll have them. I think that will be in late December, early January.” Telling said.
The information will come from surveying and using more locally-based staff.
“It’s important to be able to show the impact of tourism and economic impact on the city,” Telling said. He described the local hotels as being “fairly fully booked” this year and noted that there’s been some debate over pricing during this year’s air races.
“Many of the six or seven hotels we partner with have been exceptionally good stewards. Some, on the other hand, have raised prices considerably,” said Telling. “Some people have said (on social media) they were concerned about the rates locally.”
One example he said was someone who told Telling that they found hotels in Artesia for $78 a day. The local rates topping out at about $125 were not the problem. Sometimes it was the impression that some of these lodging businesses presented to their customers.
This situation “opens incredible opportunity for surrounding towns” to collect some of the tax revenue “that would otherwise have been here,” he emphasized.
Telling also told the councilors that there was more business for local restaurants this time around.
However, the pilots and attendees were “exceptionally pleased” with this second year of the air races being held in Roswell.
“The trick for us is going to be taking the awareness that we have created about the event and (to) translate it into more attendance,” he stressed.
