Dear TPID Participants:
The month we have all been eagerly waiting for has finally come. Soon we will welcome approximately 5,000 travel delegates from around the world to San Antonio. Our hotels, restaurants, attractions, and hospitality businesses will be at the forefront. This is our opportunity to show the world that San Antonio is a global destination. I hope you and your staff are ready to welcome the world to the Alamo City.
In Q2, Occupancy was 62.4%, which was -5.4% of pre-pandemic levels (2019), and nearly +4% from 2022 Q2. ADR had a nice gain compared to previous years at $134.05. Levels were +15.4% from 2019 and +7.2% from 2022. RevPAR also saw gains at $83.71, which showcased +9.2% from 2019 and +11.3% from 2022. With summer travel around the corner, the Marketing Department will launch summer travel campaigns to encourage travelers and families to begin booking their summer travel plans to San Antonio. Through those efforts, we should expect an increase in our occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. However, we still must do our part in continuing to offer excellent service to our guests.
The city of San Antonio has grown tremendously for both locals and visitors. Iconic attractions, including Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld, Natural Bridge Caverns, and the Alamo, have enhanced their experiences just in time for summer travel. With San Antonio’s unique history, blended cultures, and prominent culinary scenes, along with being home to the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Texas, visitors truly get a full travel experience when visiting San Antonio.
To strengthen relationships with meeting groups and provide additional benefits to member hotels, the TPID Board voted to increase the Hotel Incentive Plan’s funding, extending the benefit of $75,000 per hotel. These funds will allow participating hotels to enhance the San Antonio experience for meeting and convention attendees. One of the significant features of the plan is that hotels can offer incentives at their discretion to assist groups and meetings. Be sure to take advantage of the Hotel Incentive Plan.
Lastly, I applaud the Visit San Antonio staff for hosting their first All Hotel Meeting this past April. This was one of the best Visit San Antonio meetings I have attended. The information presented was detailed and very useful to hoteliers. It was a great atmosphere to see all the San Antonio hotels come together in one space and receive a comprehensive view of the wonderful efforts Visit San Antonio is putting forth to promote and market our beautiful city. You all did an outstanding job with this inaugural event.
Mark your calendars for the 2023 Visit San Antonio Annual Meeting. This year’s event will occur at the Tobin on November 8, 2023. We are expecting representation from all hotels, partners, and industry supporters. See you there!
Sincerely,
Avinash Bhakta
Chair
TPID Board of Directors
Administration & Finance
FY2022 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 FY2022, assessments were budgeted at $7.3 million but closed the year at $9.9 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.
FY2023 Service Plan
In December 2022, the San Antonio City Council approved the FY2023 Service Plan, which was previously approved by the Tourism Public Improvement District Board. The 2023 Service Plan projects an estimated $10.25 million in estimated revenue assessments for the District in FY2023 and outlines a corresponding service plan for sales & marketing efforts to align with that projection for FY2023. 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 below outlines the major budget parameters of the sales and marketing programming expected in FY2023.
SATPID FY2023 – Service Plan/Budget (Oct 1, 2022 – Sep 30, 2023)
| Service | % | $ Budget |
| Marketing | 49.5% | $5.07 mil |
| Sales | 40.5% | $4.15 mil |
| Industry Partnerships | 5% | $513K |
| Research and Administration | 3% | $308K |
| Contingency Marketing/Sales Funds | 2% | $205K |
| TOTAL | 100% | $10.25 mil |
Industry Data
Below is YTD industry data received from Smith Travel Research (STR) specific to March 2023 vs March 2022, as well as calendar year-to-date information (Jan-Mar 2023 vs Jan-Mar 2022) for primary comp cities plus Top 25 and Total United States. The industry continues to show positive signs of recovery through the first quarter of calendar 2023. Additionally, VSA and SATPIDC will continue to monitor industry performance as we progress through the spring and summer months of calendar year 2023.
Industry Data — Comp Cities Summary
March 2023 vs March 2022
| Occ | % Ch Occ |
ADR | % Ch ADR |
RVPR | % Ch RVPR |
% Ch Rev |
% Ch Rm Sup |
% Ch Demand |
|
| San Antonio | 70.6 | -2.0 | 147.49 | 1.9 | 104.17 | -0.1 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 0.7 |
| Atlanta, GA | 69.4 | 2.0 | 125.80 | 9.9 | 87.35 | 12.0 | 13.7 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
| Austin | 76.5 | -0.4 | 209.02 | 9.2 | 159.87 | 8.8 | 13.4 | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Charlotte, NC | 69.5 | 6.4 | 124.88 | 10.0 | 86.85 | 17.1 | 16.1 | -0.9 | 5.5 |
| Dallas | 71.3 | 3.7 | 125.41 | 9.2 | 89.47 | 13.2 | 13.4 | 0.1 | 3.8 |
| Denver, CO | 67.2 | 5.8 | 135.58 | 11.5 | 91.04 | 18.0 | 18.5 | 0.5 | 6.3 |
| Fort Worth | 74.6 | 4.4 | 132.45 | 9.2 | 98.77 | 13.9 | 17.3 | 3.0 | 7.5 |
| Houston | 68.2 | 8.0 | 121.04 | 8.2 | 82.59 | 16.9 | 16.1 | -0.7 | 7.3 |
| Indianapolis, IN | 64.3 | 3.6 | 132.20 | 6.0 | 85.05 | 9.8 | 9.5 | -0.3 | 3.3 |
| New Orleans, LA | 71.7 | 0.2 | 196.26 | 7.9 | 140.78 | 8.1 | 11.2 | 2.9 | 3.1 |
| Orlando, FL | 81.8 | -1.2 | 231.52 | 11.4 | 189.43 | 10.1 | 11.8 | 1.6 | 0.4 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 84.5 | 4.0 | 245.32 | 9.3 | 207.21 | 13.7 | 13.4 | -0.2 | 3.8 |
| San Diego, CA | 76.2 | 0.7 | 202.80 | 7.3 | 154.63 | 8.0 | 7.6 | -0.4 | 0.3 |
| Top 25 | 71.6 | 5.3 | 187.90 | 9.7 | 134.48 | 15.5 | 16.8 | 1.1 | 6.5 |
| Total U.S. | 65.3 | 2.4 | 158.17 | 7.8 | 103.35 | 10.4 | 10.8 | 0.4 | 2.8 |
CYTD (Jan 2022–Dec 2022) vs CYTD (Jan 2021–Dec 2021)
| Occ | % Ch Occ |
ADR | % Ch ADR |
RVPR | % Ch RVPR |
% Ch Rev |
% Ch Rm Sup |
% Ch Demand |
|
| San Antonio | 62.4 | 3.8 | 134.05 | 7.2 | 83.71 | 11.3 | 14.1 | 2.6 | 6.5 |
| Atlanta, GA | 65.6 | 9.0 | 125.33 | 15.0 | 82.24 | 25.4 | 27.1 | 1.4 | 10.5 |
| Austin | 68.4 | 9.1 | 179.07 | 12.1 | 122.52 | 22.3 | 27.7 | 4.4 | 13.9 |
| Charlotte, NC | 62.9 | 11.9 | 121.26 | 13.4 | 76.31 | 26.9 | 26.0 | -0.7 | 11.1 |
| Dallas | 66.9 | 9.0 | 125.59 | 14.4 | 84.05 | 27.7 | 24.8 | 0.1 | 9.1 |
| Denver, CO | 61.9 | 7.1 | 129.02 | 11.7 | 79.93 | 19.6 | 20.3 | 0.6 | 7.7 |
| Fort Worth | 68.9 | 7.2 | 126.65 | 10.4 | 87.24 | 18.3 | 21.0 | 2.3 | 9.6 |
| Houston | 61.5 | 13.4 | 113.18 | 9.7 | 69.63 | 24.4 | 23.9 | -0.5 | 12.9 |
| Indianapolis, IN | 55.7 | 3.1 | 123.83 | 3.5 | 68.98 | 6.7 | 6.1 | -0.6 | 2.5 |
| New Orleans, LA | 63.4 | 4.3 | 188.78 | 7.9 | 119.65 | 12.5 | 16.0 | 3.1 | 7.5 |
| Orlando, FL | 78.8 | 9.6 | 214.21 | 13.7 | 168.83 | 24.6 | 26.6 | 1.6 | 11.3 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 78.1 | 6.4 | 235.95 | 19.5 | 184.26 | 27.2 | 26.9 | -0.3 | 6.2 |
| San Diego, CA | 70.8 | 8.6 | 193.65 | 13.9 | 137.17 | 23.7 | 23.5 | -0.2 | 8.4 |
| Top 25 | 65.3 | 11.2 | 177.84 | 12.3 | 116.15 | 24.8 | 26.4 | 1.3 | 12.6 |
| Total U.S. | 59.3 | 5.9 | 151.16 | 10.2 | 89.69 | 16.7 | 17.2 | 0.4 | 6.4 |
DESTINATION SALES
Our convention sales team had another successful booking quarter in Q2 FY2023. Our event lead volume continues to stay strong, having received 986 event inquiries for Visit San Antonio in this second quarter. By the end of March, our convention team had confirmed 179 events for the quarter, all of which have an economic impact of over $107 million. Along with this great convention production, our team was very busy attending the following customer and industry events:
- PCMA Convening Leaders: January 8-11
- RCMA Emerge: January 24-26
- Southwest Showcase: January 27
- Transforming Leaders Event: Austin: February 9
- San Antonio Rodeo FAM Trip: Maritz: February 15-17
- NYSAE Meet NY: February 22
- MIC Colorado Education Conference & Tradeshow: March 2-3
- Power of Purpose Business Week (PCMA, Destination International, & IAEE): March 7-9
- SISO CEO Summit: March 20-23
- ConferenceDirect Annual Partner Meeting: March 26-30
As mentioned, the 2nd quarter of FY2023 showed very strong convention sales production, with the Destination Sales Team’s lead generation and booking efforts once again exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The team booked 179 events for the quarter, resulting in the following metrics, year to date (through March):
- 361 Events (136% to FYTD Goal)
- 332 Short-Term Events [through 2024] (150% to FYTD Goal)
- 1,764 Leads (141% to FYTD Goal)
- 83 Corporate Citywide Leads (120% to FYTD Goal)
- 24 Citywide Events (96% to FYTD Goal)
- 282,897 Groom Rooms Booked (97% to FYTD Goal)
Visit San Antonio’s short-term focus and execution continues to impact the immediate future, with 92% of these bookings (332 Events) arriving by the end of 2024! In addition, we were able to confirm twenty-four (24) citywide bookings totaling just under $140M in economic impact for San Antonio during the first half of the fiscal year. Even with all this recent activity, the Destination Sales Team’s funnel remains robust with sixty-three (63) Convention Center tentative opportunities with an estimated 321K total group room nights / 332K attendees.
In closing, I would be remised if not to remind everyone that SATPID’s Individual Hotel Incentive Program is still in effect and going strong! We continue to receive applications from SATPID-participating hotels, utilizing this resource for the first time. With funding still available, please continue to submit your qualifying applications. You can access your balance in real-time on the partner Extranet and you will also receive monthly emails with your balance.
MARKETING
Every TPID dollar spent in digital advertising produced a ROI of 1:41 in overall traveler city expenditures (fiscal year-to-date).
OLE has been incredibly strong the first half of FY23. We hit 41.4M in OLE fiscal year-to-date. That is 83% of our total FY23 OLE goal of 55M!
The Visit San Antonio website also saw a strong Q2. Over 1.2M users visited the website contributing to over 2.4M pageviews. The Visit San Antonio homepage has made great use of blogs and trending topics to ensure fresh, relevant content is always served to our visitors.
You may have noticed that Visit San Antonio and the River Walk’s social media channels are booming! In just under 6 months, the Visit San Antonio TikTok channel has cleared 20,000 followers. We’ve seen great audience growth on our channels and our video views are up 80% thanks to improved strategies and the addition of TikTok.
Kicking off 2023, we promoted DreamWeek and the 2023 MLK March. Visit San Antonio executed a targeted media plan with a geographic reach focused on Austin, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio. Throughout the month of January these efforts resulted in 1.4M impressions.
In addition to the targeted media plan, we utilized our social media platforms including video elements with Facebook reels and TikToks, as well as blogs that contributed to over 7,000 pageviews in January.
Blogs to check out:
- Celebrating San Antonio’s Black Heritage and Legacies – MLK March 2023 and DreamWeek
- Celebrate San Antonio’s Rich Black Heritage
Visit San Antonio also supported the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo’s marketing efforts with a media marketing campaign that ran from January 1-24 targeting audiences in key geographic areas resulting in 4.3M impressions and an 87:1 ROI.
We also promoted with organic social posts across our leisure channels as well as a blog, “What to Expect at This Year’s San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo” which was viewed over 4,000 times in February.
Our marketing team led a media campaign to market San Antonio as a premier Spring Break destination. We targeted efforts both regionally and nationally focusing on our family personas, then adding college students and last-minute travelers in Austin, DFW, and Houston to the campaign as we went into March.
We supplemented our media campaign through our social media channels with posts not only highlighting spring break, but also honing in on specific attractions to visit, like the Disney Immersive Art Exhibit and Dino Safari. We further supported these efforts with blogs suggesting great places to eat and fun things to do.
Blogs to check out:
- Bring the Whole Family to San Antonio this Spring Break
- Let Arts & Culture Adventures Guide Your Educational Spring Break
Two major River Walk events took place in Q2. The Mardi Gras marketing campaign resulted in 2.4M impressions and a 38:1 ROI. Shortly after, the Bud Light St Patrick’s Festival and River Parade campaign resulted in 1.4M impressions. Both marketing campaigns were supplemented with organic and boosted social posts on both the River Walk and Visit San Antonio social channels as well as blogs and placement in the quarterly Rio Magazine.
In Q2, we initiated an audit on all our websites in preparation for upcoming renovations to better serve our visitors. In addition, an AI tool was implemented on our website to allow visitors to ask questions and get responses in real-time. And we recently added a feature to sell tickets and added the Buy Tickets page on our website.
Now all Visit San Antonio Members can display their Real & True pride and share what makes their business unique, authentic – and Real & True! We deployed our Real & True Tool Kit to all Members.
Visit San Antonio has been meeting with City Council district representatives to take a closer look at all the hidden gems in each of the city’s districts. With these efforts, we are developing Food Trails to help visitors and locals alike navigate San Antonio’s incredible culinary scene across the city.
We recently wrapped up successful Marketing Co-op campaigns with the San Antonio Museum of Art, The DoSeum, and L’Étape. If you are interested in collaborating with Visit San Antonio on a Marketing Co-op, learn more at members.visitsanantonio.com.
As part of our ongoing efforts, Visit San Antonio continues to support the City of San Antonio’s Arts & Culture Department and the overall arts and culture scene. Not only have we featured arts and culture gems throughout our social media channels, but in Q2, we had eight blogs dedicated to arts and culture resulting in over 19,000 pageviews this quarter! Our website is filled with arts and culture pages that we feature in blog posts and social channels. In Q2, our arts and culture pages were viewed over 162,000 times!
Arts & Culture Q2 Blogs to Check Out:
- 7 Reasons Why San Antonio is a Top Arts & Culture Destination
- Let Arts & Culture Adventures Guide Your Educational Spring Break
- Celebrating San Antonio’s Black Heritage and Legacies – MLK March 2023 and DreamWeek
- 12 Authentic Tex-Mex Restaurants to Check Out in San Antonio
- Celebrating Black History Month in San Antonio
- Let Arts & Culture Adventures Guide Your Educational Spring Break
- Black Restaurant Week San Antonio: Enjoy Local Cuisine and Support Diversity
- Celebrate Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio
The city’s brilliant arts and culture scene was also captured in the latest Beautiful Destinations video as well as our spring video efforts:
We will continue with our ongoing annual paid and organic media support to arts and culture through display, video, search, email marketing, social media, TV/Connected TV, radio/audio, and outdoor marketing.