El Paso County Judge Says What I’ve Been Saying For Years About Heritage Tourism

Seriously? El Paso County officials spent $90,000 on a study about heritage tourism? Ok, to be fair, the study also included the feasibility of building an arena in Ascarate Park but it did look at how the County could bring more out-of-town dollars to the County. Um. Yeah. I've been saying that for years. You can take a look at this article I wrote in February of this year about the City not using our assets to bring in tourists. And then there's this article from September of last year that points out that we don't promote the Missions in the Lower Valley, something Samaniego directly spoke about yesterday.

JEEZ JUST HIRE ME ALREADY
Talking about how we need to clean up Concordia Cemetery - I know it's not in the County, stay with me - and promote it like other cemeteries are promoted in Los Angeles and New Orleans is something that you'll see in KISS FM articles all the time. We have a lot to offer but instead of doing something boneheaded like building a freeway park in downtown El Paso we need to capitalize on what we already have. The County needs to do the same. Here are 3 things they could do right now.

1. Lower Valley Missions - We have a Mission Trail. Why doesn't the County spend $90,000 on an amazing video that can be shopped to Texas themed shows like the Texas Bucket List so they can do a segment on them? There are a bunch of bed and breakfasts in the Lower Valley that could also use some County pub.

2. Hello, Ascarate Park - Ascarate is a real hidden gem for a lot of El Paso. The County needs to be more vocal about the fabulous golf course that you can play almost all year long because of our weather, the walking tracks that ring the lake, and all the other activities that Ascarate has to offer.

3. Hueco Tanks - You can not only enjoy some of the best hiking and rock climbing in the country at Hueco Tanks but you can also learn about the earliest inhabitants of our area. All that would need to be done is to do some research on rock climbing groups and get on their social media radar.

Come on County Judge, stop spending money on reports that tell us what we already know. We have the jewels in the crown, you just need to shed some light on them.