Michael Cerletti, Secretary of the New Mexico Tourism Department, was elected February 29, 2008 as chairman of the Western States Tourism Policy Council (WSTPC), a consortium of the 13 Western states tourism offices formed in 1996 to support public policies and programs that enable travel and tourism to provide maximum economic and environmental benefits to the states and communities of the West.
WSTPC members are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Since 1997, the agencies and WSTPC have collaborated on a number of projects, including sponsoring major joint conferences on tourism and recreation.
Secretary Cerletti, who had been serving as vice-chairman, succeeds Caroline Beteta, Director of Travel and Tourism for the State of California, who will assume the position of National Chair of the Board of Directors of the Travel Industry Association of America April 1, 2008.
Cerletti said it is important that WSTPC continue its leadership role in helping foster increased cooperation between it members and it federal partners, such as the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to name a few, in an effort to increase travel and tourism throughout the West.