Can Spaceships and Startups Attract Conventions to Albuquerque?
Photo Credit: Albuquerque is trying to parlay Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic, and other high-tech companies into more convention business. Virgin Galactic
Skift Take
Albuquerque has a great opportunity to take advantage of New Mexico's high-tech knowledge base and the glam appeal of Virgin Galactic, but it needs to separate its messaging between the leisure and group markets.
New Mexico is the birthplace of the atom bomb, the "Star Wars" missile defense system, Microsoft, and space tourism.
The City of Albuquerque and the Visit Albuquerque tourism bureau are intent on leveraging that legacy of advanced industry expertise, and building on it, to attract more national conventions involved in various high-tech sectors.
At the local level, the municipal government is attempting to integrate all of today's best practices in urban redevelopment into a long-range strategic plan to elevate New Mexico's largest city into a modern, technologically advanced business hub. That includes the construction of a new downtown "innovation district" and populating it with a growing tech startup ecosystem feeding into some of America's leading scientific research facilities.
On a national level, the tourism bureau wants to position the city as a new business travel node in the American Southwest. The goal is to bring visiting convention delegates
