Dear TPID Participants:
Summer vacation has ended, and schools are back in session. The last few months have been rewarding for our industry. We started the summer months with a new marketing campaign and hosted a successful Cvent CONNECT 2024. Now that we have come to the end of the 2024 summer vacation season, we close out strong by announcing some amazing news for the San Antonio culinary scene. This summer was a win for our city.
In June, San Antonio was the place to be for meeting planners. Cvent CONNECT 2024 annual conference was held for the first time in the Alamo City, with 10,000 attendees. It was wonderful to hear the excitement from planners who had never been to San Antonio as they explored the city on familiarization tours. I often heard how they were unaware of the size of our city and its many offerings, as well as the culture and walkability of our downtown. Planners who visited San Antonio years before were amazed at our new developments and how much we have grown as a business and leisure destination.
The business connections made at Cvent CONNECT offer ideal opportunities to bring more meetings to our vibrant city. These connections also unlock the TPID Incentive Fund, a valuable resource for meeting planners. Consider appointing a TPID Champion to guide you through these opportunities for your property. San Antonio is ready to benefit from Cvent CONNECT 2024 for years to come. Don’t miss the chance to enhance your offerings and secure new business by leveraging the TPID Incentive Fund.
Visit San Antonio topped off the summer with the announcement of the MICHELIN Guide coming to Texas. Congratulations to all who helped bring this prestigious honor to our state and city. The MICHELIN Guide adds another scale of culinary excellence that began with James Beard. This is an excellent opportunity for all hotel chefs!
The Visit San Antonio and TPID boards have approved Visit San Antonio’s long-term strategic plan. I appreciate all TPID members who participated and gave feedback. It was exciting to lay the foundation upon which our industry thrives. Through the goals and strategies, we will continue to welcome the world to San Antonio while focusing on our sustaining markets, including regional and Mexico.
In conclusion, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Visit San Antonio Destination Sales and Experience Departments, and all those who contributed to the success of the sales roadshow “On the Road, The Future Rocks”. Your unwavering dedication and tireless efforts were evident in every city you visited, and we are deeply grateful for your role in promoting our beloved city. The tourism and hospitality industry in San Antonio is truly indebted to you for your hard work and commitment.
With warm regards,
Maria Martinez
TPID Chair
The Westin Riverwalk/General Manager
DESTINATION SALES
The third quarter of FY2024 proved to be a strong convention sales production quarter. By the end of June, our convention team had confirmed 178 events for the quarter, resulting in 111% (568 events) to goal for the first nine months of FY2024. June was the strongest month of the quarter for future room nights booked, with 72,915 rooms confirmed. June room night production was up roughly 14% from the strongest month in Q2, January, with 64,031 rooms confirmed. The team is now at 76% of the room night target for the year.
Q3’s sales production continues the trend of new and short-term business for San Antonio. 88% percent of events booked so far this year occurred in 2024, or will occur between now and the end of 2025, as well as 46% (or 253 events) of these future events are new to San Antonio. In addition, we placed 18 citywide events within our destination which puts the team at 84% to the annual goal of 57 citywide events. All event bookings year to date will have a future economic impact of $464.1 million for San Antonio.
The third quarter of FY2024 also saw the following travel and trade shows:
- Connect Spring Marketplace – Las Vegas, NV
- FIESTA Corporate/Intermediary Fam Trip – San Antonio, TX
- Multi-City Roadshow – Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Washington, Nashville, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston
- HelmsBriscoe Annual Business Conference – Las Vegas, NV
- Client Advisory Board Meeting – San Antonio, TX
- MPI World Education Congress – Louisville, KY
- Cvent CONNECT 2024 and Pre-Post Fam Trips – San Antonio, TX!
- PCMA EduCon – Detroit, MI
We continue to receive applications from SATPID participating hotels, utilizing this resource for the first time. It’s been so popular we are now on a waitlist for funds to release for this fiscal year. You are welcome to continue to submit your qualifying applications and they will be processed in the order in which they are received.
MARKETING
The Q3 marketing summary highlights significant efforts to promote San Antonio’s attractions and cultural experiences. Key initiatives include impactful summer campaigns, branding efforts showcasing the city’s authenticity, and establishing San Antonio as the Theme Park Capital of Texas. The marketing team received five awards from the American Marketing Association, including first place for Best Hospitality/Tourism Campaign, Best Branding, and Best Single Tactic and second place for Social Media. The team also won third place for non-profit efforts with CENTRO San Antonio and the City of San Antonio (COSA) on the Holidays on Houston Street campaign.
Here are the Q3 campaigns:
- Summer Campaign “The Many Cools” of San Antonio, with a $3.4 million media investment (up 30% from last summer), runs from April 8 to August 9. Targeting families and adults through TV, audio, cross-platform display, out-of-home advertising, paid social, and search engine marketing, it generated 327 million impressions
- New Branding Campaign “The Many Stories” and “The Many Reasons” showcased San Antonio’s uniqueness and authenticity
- The Theme Park Capital of Texas: A cooperative effort with Six Flags Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld, and Morgan’s Wonderland
- 2024-2025 Visitors’ Guide Launch
- Marketing in Germany in top five markets for the Condor Frankfurt-San Antonio route and development of the German landing page
- Summer Hotel Coops with Marriott Bonvoy and St. Anthony Hotel
- Summer Attraction Coops with the DoSeum, the Witte Museum, and San Antonio Botanical Garden
- Texas Roadshow Marketing in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Rio Grande Valley
- Virtual Field Trip Campaign: San Antonio Adventures with Rose and Antonio where learning meets fun. This campaign ran in Houston, Ft. Worth, and the RGV
- River Walk Campaigns supporting “River Walk Live!” and the RIO Magazine Summer Edition
- Stars & Stripes on Houston St. Inaugural effort with COSA and Centro San Antonio
- Phase 2 Metaverse Launch promoting San Antonio as the Theme Park Capital of Texas
- Trade Marketing Efforts supporting Cvent Connect 2024, the San Antonio Real and True Incentive Program, and attendance building for key meetings
City of San Antonio Arts & Culture Q3 Update:
Support for Key Q3 City Efforts through Social Media and Blogging:
- Explore San Antonio’s Summer Arts & Culture Scene
- Celebrate Juneteenth and Civic Season in San Antonio
- Performance Groups to See this Summer
- Cinefestival Returns to San Antonio this Summer
Cultural Pages Strong Performance:
- Fiesta San Antonio (21,388 page views in Q3)
- Arts & Culture (22,193 page views in Q3)
- Arts & Culture Events (6,071 page views in Q3)
Ongoing Paid and Organic Media Support: Q3 included ongoing support for arts and culture through annual paid and organic media efforts.
ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE
FY2023 Service Plan Assessments
District Assessments are collected by properties and remitted to the City of San Antonio utilizing the same reporting process as Hotel Occupancy Tax. For FY2023, assessments were budgeted at $10.25 million but closed the year at $10.77 million year-end. The increased assessments will be applied to the same service plan categories originally adopted with more than 90% dedicated to sales and marketing programs. This growth helps to demonstrate some of San Antonio’s strong leisure demand influenced in large part by TPID advertising and marketing activities.
FY2024 Service Plan
In December 2023, the San Antonio City Council approved the FY2024 Service Plan, which was previously approved by the Tourism Public Improvement District Board. The 2024 Service Plan projects an estimated $10.9 million in estimated revenue assessments for the District in FY2024 and outlines a corresponding service plan for sales & marketing efforts to align with that projection for FY2024. Visit San Antonio will work with the SATPID board to execute various strategies to best leverage these resources to help drive additional demand for the destination and properties within the District. The below referenced Service Plan outlines the major budget parameters of the sales and marketing programming expected in FY2024.
SATPID FY2024 – Service Plan/Budget (Oct 1, 2023 – Sep 30, 2024)
Industry Data
Below is YTD industry data received from Smith Travel Research (STR) specific to June 2024 vs June 2023, as well as calendar year to date information (Jan-June 2024 vs Jan-June 2023) for primary comp cities. VSA and SATPIDC will continue to monitor industry performance as we progress through the fall and winter months of calendar year 2024.
