Dear TPID Participants,

Fiscal Year 2025 Q1 kicked off strong with Día de los Muertos and the Holidays. San Antonio beamed with cultural pride as the city celebrated loved ones who had passed. We welcomed visitors from across Texas and North America, including Canada, New York, Boston, Virginia and Tennessee who joined us in honoring this tradition. As cultural tourism continues to grow and more travelers discover San Antonio’s unique offerings, we look forward to welcoming even more visitors to our city and hotels.

The festive season was no different than the month before as visitors enjoyed the colorfulness of our city within the magic of the holidays. The added events under San Antonio’s newest holiday initiative, the Second Annual Holidays on Houston, made downtown during the holidays more fun, festive and fabulous! I can’t wait to see what Visit San Antonio, The City and Centro San Antonio will bring to next year’s festivities.

In closing, the month of February is the month of appreciation where we show those whom we care about how much they mean to us. This February, I would like to express my appreciation to each one of you, all of our hospitality team members and everyone at Visit San Antonio. It takes a certain passion to do what we do and do it well. Extending hospitality to others is a service that makes people feel special. The ability to bring smiles and create unique experiences that become cherished memories is truly magical. And as we move into Q2, may we never forget why we love what we do, for it will always be our guiding light.

Remember to utilize the TPID Incentive Program. This is a gift we extend to meeting groups and conventions for choosing San Antonio as their host city.

With warm regards,

Maria Martinez

Chair, TPID Board of Directors

HOTEL INCENTIVE PROGRAM

SATPID’s Individual Hotel Incentive Program is in effect and going strong!

With funding still available, please continue to submit applications for up to $75K per participating SATPID property.

LEARN MORE

Destination Sales

The Sales team had a busy first quarter wrapping up calendar year 2024.  We started the quarter off by attending one the industry’s largest tradeshows, IMEX America.  There we hosted hundreds of appointments with event professionals.  We followed IMEX America by attending Holiday Showcase in Chicago, where we showcased San Antonio to our Midwest clientele. Then, to finish off the year, our team hosted our annual Tamaladas in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.  At those events Visit San Antonio, along with local stakeholders, hosted meeting customers in holiday themed activations and events. 

Key Highlights of the Quarter:  

• Confirmed 13 citywide programs for San Antonio worth 95,800 total room nights and $122 million in estimated economic impact.
• Confirmed 166 events were contracted within the quarter, 71% of which will meet by the end of 2025.
• The teams are in full planning mode for a year of important industry events hosted in San Antonio: Final Four NCAA Basketball Championship, Cvent Connect, MPI WEC, and TSAE’s New Ideas Conference.

Marketing

The year's first quarter was marked by significant efforts to promote San Antonio’s attractions and cultural experiences during one of our most vibrant seasons. Key achievements included the successful execution of fall and holiday campaigns and the launch of new tools to enhance the San Antonio visitor experience. These efforts exceeded our quarterly goals by 30%, generating 41.4 million online engagements, which resulted in 428 thousand attributed visitors to the city and an economic impact of $199.4 million. 

Key Highlights for the Quarter: 

• Fall Campaigns with a media investment of $1.3 million generating 142 million impressions included The Many Ways to Fall in Love with San Antonio campaign targeting families and adults and campaigns promoting San Antonio’s Day of the Dead celebrations and Halloween events.
• Holiday Campaigns with a media investment of $1.1 million, running from November 1 – December 31, generated 141 million impressions. Key initiatives included "The Many Gifts of San Antonio” Campaign, co-ops with InterContinental Hotel and Natural Bridge Caverns. The team also supported the San Antonio’s Hospitality Foundation ¡Provecho! fundraising event, recognized San Antonio’s Michelin accolades and provided marketing support for the second annual Holidays on Houston Street in partnership with COSA and Centro San Antonio.
• The San Antonio River Walk marketing efforts included support for the Day of the Dead River Walk Parade, the Annual Ford Holiday River Parade and Lighting Ceremony and the RIO Magazine Holiday Edition11.

Visitor Experience Enhancements

• New Visit San Antonio App: Launched in November to connect visitors with San Antonio’s top attractions, events and experiences. Download the app here.
• Interactive Neighborhood Map: Features dining, shopping, lodging and attractions across all neighborhoods. Allows visitors to plan itineraries and explore San Antonio’s unique offerings. Explore the map here.
• Curated Dining Guides: Created by local food critic Edmund Tijerina showcasing top restaurants by cuisine type. Features immersive 360-degree views of restaurant interiors using Threshold 360 technology. Check out the guides here.
• Plan Your Visit Kiosk: The first kiosk was installed at the Henry B. González Convention Center. Visitors can explore attractions, dining and activities. Four additional kiosks will be installed at key downtown locations.

We encourage you to share these exciting tools with your networks to help visitors make the most of their San Antonio experience! 

City of San Antonio Arts & Culture Q1 Update: 

• Support for Key Q1 City Efforts through Social Media and Blogging:  
  • Experience Indian Food & Culture at DiwaliSA
  • Celebrate “Pueblos del Maiz” in San Antonio!
  • Visit these Top San Antonio Panaderías for Día de los Muertos
  • Brackenridge: One of America’s Most Culturally Significant Parks Celebrates 125 Years
  • How to Celebrate Las Posadas in San Antonio
  • Top Things to Do in San Antonio’s Cultural Corridor11  
  • Celebrate San Antonio’s Rich Black Heritage 

• Cultural Pages Strong Performance:  
  • Day of the Dead | 101,592 pageviews
  • Day of the Dead Event Calendar | 19,869 pageviews
  • Arts & Culture Events | 9,123 pageviews
  • Arts & Culture | 7,718 pageviews
  • DiwaliSA | 4,474 pageviews 

• Ongoing Paid and Organic Media Support: Q1 FY25 included ongoing support for arts and culture through annual paid and organic social media efforts. 
• Visit San Antonio SM Channels: Organic total impressions 2.9 million, total engagements: 183 thousand and 1.9 million video views
• The San Antonio River Walk SM Channels: Organic total impressions 2.1 million, total engagements 132 thousand and 272 thousand video views

Administration & Finance

FY2024 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 FY2024, assessments were budgeted at $10.9 million but closed the year at $10.6 million. The decreased assessments will be covered by savings across the same service plan categories originally adopted.

FY2025 Service Plan

In December 2024, the San Antonio City Council approved the FY2025 Service Plan, which was previously approved by the Tourism Public Improvement District Board. The 2025 Service Plan projects an estimated $11 million in revenue assessments for the District and outlines a corresponding service plan for sales & marketing efforts to align with that projection. 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 FY2025.

SATPID FY2025 – Service Plan/Budget (Oct 1, 2024 – Sept 30, 2025)

Industry Data

Below is YTD industry data received from Smith Travel Research (STR) specific to December 2024 vs December 2023, as well as calendar year to date information (Jan-December 2024 vs Jan-December 2023) for primary comp cities. VSA and SATPIDC will continue to monitor industry performance as we progress through the spring and summer months of calendar year 2025.