Maria Martinez Updated Headshot

Dear TPID Participants:

It is an honor to serve as your new TPID Chair. As the first woman in this role, I am filled with a sense of pride and responsibility, and thankful to be of service to this esteemed Board. It is a crucial period for our city as it grows and evolves into a global destination. From the first flight to Frankfurt, Germany, to the media and buyer missions overseas, we are sharing the many stories and wonders of our city around the world, which will position San Antonio as an unmatched leisure and business travel destination. I am excited to share developments from Visit San Antonio.   

At the Second Annual All Hotel Meeting in April, Visit San Antonio did an excellent job presenting plans for the upcoming months. A big part of those plans includes the marketing team’s summer campaign, Dive into the Many Cools of Summer, highlighting cool spots and hotel pools around the city. I am eagerly anticipating the results of this campaign and the influx of locals and visitors frequenting our exquisite hotel properties for summer fun, repose, and cuisine. If you are not a participating partner in this unique campaign, there’s still time to get involved by completing the Visit San Antonio Summer Campaign form.    

Also coming up in just over a week is Cvent CONNECT 2024, a premier technology trade show for meeting planners. Similar to IPW, Cvent CONNECT will further boost San Antonio’s profile among meeting planners around the world, as they immerse themselves in the vibrant culture, rich history, and dynamic offerings of our city. It is our hope these meeting planners share their experience in San Antonio with excitement and enthusiasm, sparking interest and anticipation among their colleagues and stakeholders. Together, let's make our mark on Cvent CONNECT 2024.   

As a reminder, the TPID Incentive Plan continues to be an invaluable resource for our hotel properties. It not only helps groups in need by alleviating costs but also empowers meeting planners to create unforgettable experiences for their attendees. We encourage you to click here to review the benefits of the incentive program and seize the opportunity to enhance your offerings. This is a fantastic way to elevate the experiences of your guests, fostering repeat business for the future.  

With warm regards, 

Maria Martinez 

Chair, Hotel and Lodging San Antonio Tourism Public Improvement District

The Westin Riverwalk/General Manager

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

Our convention sales team had another successful booking quarter in Q2 FY2024. Our event lead volume continues to stay strong, having received 1,057 event inquiries for Visit San Antonio in this second quarter.  By the end of March, our convention team had confirmed 170 events for the quarter, all of which have an economic impact of over $134.5 Million. Along with this great convention production, our team was very busy attending the following customer and industry events: 

  • PCMA Convening Leaders – San Diego, CA
  • RCMA Emerge – San Antonio, TX
  • Southwest Showcase – Round Rock, TX
  • Transforming Leader’s Speaker Event – Austin, TX
  • MPI NCC Annual Conference/Expo – San Francisco, CA
  • MIC Colorado – Denver, CO
  • Denver Roadshow Event and Sales Calls - Denver, CO 

As mentioned, the 2nd quarter of FY2024 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 170 events for the quarter, resulting in the following metrics, year to date (through March):

  • 391 Events (115% to FYTD Goal) 
  • 339 Short-Term Events [through 2025] (119% to FYTD Goal)
  • 1,816 Leads (107% to FYTD Goal)
  • 30 Citywide Events (105% to FYTD Goal)
  • 369,762 Group Rooms Booked (100% to FYTD Goal) 

Visit San Antonio’s short-term focus and execution continues to impact the immediate future, with 87% of these bookings (339 Events) arriving by the end 2025!  In addition, we were able to confirm thirty (30) citywide bookings totaling just under $185M 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 seventy-five (75) Convention Center tentative opportunities with an estimated 494K total group room nights / 336.5K 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

Spring in San Antonio Campaign

Key Highlights for the Quarter:  

Q2 Campaigns 

The spring campaign was launched in January with a $1.9 million media spend, reaching 179 million impressions via a multimedia strategy to target key personas. We also introduced the Condor campaign in Germany for the first transatlantic nonstop flight to San Antonio, featuring high-impact out-of-home advertising in key German markets, video, content, and a dedicated German page on our website. 

River Walk Website 

We launched a new River Walk website and introduced AudioEye® technology for improved accessibility on both River Walk and Visit San Antonio websites, ensuring easy access for all users. 

Key Metrics for the Quarter

Visit San Antonio’s FY24 Q2 Web Performance

  • 1.7M users 
  • 2.1M sessions 
  • 3.4M pageviews  

Visit San Antonio FY24 Q2 Social Media Performance

River Walk Web FY24 Q2 Performance

  • 238K users 
  • 300K sessions 
  • 708K page views  

River Walk Social Media FY24 Q2 Performance

Looking Ahead Initiatives:

Summer 2024 Campaign

"Dive Into the Many Cools of San Antonio" with a $3.4 million media spend and expected 311 million media impressions from 4/15/24-8/9/24. 

Theme Park Capital of Texas

Collaborate with Six Flags, SeaWorld, and Morgan’s Wonderland for the new campaign "San Antonio is The Theme Park Capital of Texas." 

Metaverse

Launching Phase 2 of the Metaverse to support "Theme Capital of Texas" with a unique museum initiative and gamification at 210 Plaza, including hotel bookings via Expedia.

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 March 2024 vs March 2023, as well as calendar year to date information (Jan-Mar 2024 vs Jan-Mar 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 2024.