Journey Together - Visit San Antonio Executive Brief

Q3 FY24

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Message from the CEO

Dear Valued Partners,

Time is fleeting when you are having fun! Visit San Antonio is a few months away from the end of Fiscal Year 2024. I am happy to report Visit San Antonio departments are on track to achieving their fiscal year goals. Q3 was an important quarter as each department put plans into action. We concluded our roadshow, launched our biggest-ever summer campaign, “The Many Cools of Summer,” and successfully hosted, for the first time, the IPW for meeting professionals, Cvent CONNECT 2024. I expound on these highlights and others further below.

As we close another quarter, please join me in welcoming back Mario Bass as our new Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. Mario is returning home after serving as COO for Visit Orlando. He was previously the Chief Sales Officer of Visit San Antonio. I would also like to welcome Tania Tadevic as Senior Director of Market Strategy. Tania has over 18 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Her most recent role was Area Director of Sales and Marketing for the Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk and the Grand Hyatt San Antonio Riverwalk. We are very lucky to have Mario and Tania on our All-Star team!

Here are a few of our summer highlights:

Summer Campaign
This summer, Visit San Antonio’s Marketing team launched the “coolest” campaign called "The Many Cools of Summer.” Kicking off the campaign’s launch and celebrating the start of summer, our Media Relations & Communications team initiated one of the most iconic PR stunts on the River Walk, where over 200 Visit San Antonio-branded inner tubes floated the San Antonio River downtown. Our Global Tourism team also coordinated several consumer roadshows in our key Texas drive markets, encouraging consumers to beat the summer heat in the Alamo City.  

Cvent CONNECT
Visit San Antonio appreciates everyone who helped make Cvent CONNECT 2024 a resounding success. New connections were made, and relationships strengthened while the best of San Antonio was on full display. In addition, our Sales team is diligently working with Cvent to have CONNECT return to San Antonio in 2025. Read more about Cvent CONNECT in the Sales section. 

Sales Road Show
Visit San Antonio’s first-ever Destination Sales roadshow, “On the Road, The Future Rocks,” successfully concluded in May after visiting 11 cities. Congratulations to our Sales, Experience and Marketing teams for a job well done.  

River Walk Live!
River Walk Live! kicked off in May with country music award winner Jack Ingram. In celebration of Juneteenth, we welcomed Western soul artist Angel Whyte. On July 18, Texas native and country music artist Carson Jeffrey performed at the historic Arneson River Theatre. Be sure to come out and enjoy some great music on The San Antonio River Walk.

Stars & Stripes on Houston St.
Visit San Antonio joined forces with the City, CENTRO and the Alamo to bring another Houston Street initiative to downtown San Antonio. Stars & Stripes on Houston Street celebrated our nation’s independence with a street parade, picnics and movies in Milan, Legacy and Travis parks, a drone show at the Alamo and four patriotic river parades with Salute at Sunset.      

Q3 FY24 Sales 

The Sales team wrapped up the two-month, 11-city roadshow at the end of May with over 200 attendees and 46 sales calls executed! Customers from key target accounts, such as Amazon, White Cap, Cohesity, AFP, Lions International and Starbucks, attended and engaged with Visit San Antonio partners and teams throughout this interactive initiative.  During the roadshow, the team also promoted a registration discount for Cvent CONNECT 2024, which helped drive exposure and attendance to 4,000 attendees, up 500 from the anticipated attendance of 3,500. During our pre-and-post FAMS for Cvent CONNECT and during the CONNECT tradeshow, our Visit San Antonio sales team generated 38 total leads, including six new citywide leads.

Key Highlights for the Quarter:

• A total of 178 events were contracted during the quarter, with 45% (80 events) of these events being new to San Antonio

• Secured 18 citywide events totaling 120,543 contracted room nights with an average of 1,927 rooms per night on peak, 108,800 attendees, equating to an estimated EEI of $132.5+ million  

• The corporate citywide team secured two key short-term citywide events for next year

  • In May 2025, Fisher Rosemount Systems Emerson Exchange program is estimated to bring 3,500 attendees with an estimated EEI of $5.2 million the week leading into Memorial Day weekend 

  • Notably, the Whataburger Leadership Summit will be hosted for the very first time in San Antonio in September 2025, bringing 3,000 leaders to Whataburger’s hometown with an estimated EEI of $3M

Q3 FY24 Destination Experience  

Cvent CONNECT 2024 was held in San Antonio on June 10-13 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The economic impact of these three days equates to over $7 million. Event organizers reported this year boosted the largest hybrid attendance ever for the event, with 4,000 meeting professionals in person and 6,000 virtual participants. More than 100 local business partners and organizations collaborated with Visit San Antonio to curate experiences and highlight the city's most treasured assets. Immersion tours were provided across the city to over 300 meeting planners. Two hundred volunteer shifts were completed, equaling nearly 1,000 hours of volunteer time. Visit San Antonio leadership presented Cvent executives with the “Heart of the City” in honor of this milestone event for the San Antonio community. The Destination Experience team looks forward to hosting the meeting again.

Key Highlights for the Quarter

• Proactively managed 47 groups with hotel blocks representing 169,252 room nights and 88,317 attendees, with an estimated Economic Impact Calculator total of $142 million, and supported 59,049 jobs  

• Conducted 26 planning site visits with 153 planners and team visiting 226 partners for confirmed future groups

• Connect SA RFP was awarded to a local consultant

• Achieved an overall Destination Experience survey satisfaction score of 4/4 and presented nine groups with a peak of 2,500+ with the “Heart of the City” 

Q3 FY24 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, 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) for 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 generated 327 million impressions

• New Branding Campaign “The Many Stories” and “The Many Reasons” showcased San Antonio’s uniqueness and authenticity

Other Key Highlights for the Quarter 

• 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 Rio Grande Valley

• 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.

Q3 FY24 Media Relations and Communications 

Watch Now: CBS Mornings: Surprise Cities – David Begnaud’s storytelling journey through San Antonio

The third quarter of the fiscal year was a strong time for San Antonio media coverage. The team secured nearly 400 placements, providing more than $10 million in earned media value. During the quarter, San Antonio benefited from being a central location for the April Total Eclipse, which provided an angle for the Media Relations team to secure coverage nationally and internationally.

Key Highlights for the Quarter

• Hosted an innovative and very well-received media conference during IPW 2024, which brought additional media interest and coverage for San Antonio

• Produced a media mission to New York City, including a San Antonio chef dinner spotlight event at the James Beard Foundation’s Platform venue for more than 40 media

• Hosted media groups to celebrate Fiesta and the LGBTQ+ Pride River Parade and Pride celebrations

• Collaborated with UK celebrities Andi and Mikita Oliver to showcase San Antonio on their social channels and upcoming media coverage

• Hosted Visit San Antonio’s first-ever group of social media influencers from China, seeding the market to grow the Visit San Antonio Chinese social channels and destination awareness

• Successfully launched Stars & Stripes on Houston Street to local and regional media

Q3 FY24 Global Development

Tourism Development executed various well-researched and vetted strategies and tactics that will generate demand over the summer timeframe. Allow us to share information on a key accomplishment:

Texas Consumer Roadshow
The team executed the “Texas Consumer Roadshow,” which included taking the “Many Cools” messaging on the road with stops in Houston, Austin, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley. The Texas Consumer Roadshow included the top primary source markets of Houston, Austin, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley. The team activated in the primary mall of each city based on Visit San Antonio visitor profile targets and household incomes. Team members created a poolside experience that included face painting, caricatures, animal interactions and free paletas for all attendees. In addition, the team drove email opt-ins with a vacation giveaway that included hotel accommodations and four CityPass passes for a family of four. Combined, the team had over 10,000 consumers attend events, collected over 2,000 email opt-ins and drove over 41,000 page views.

Key Highlights for the Quarter

• Launched four summer campaigns, targeting key source markets with Amadeus, Expedia, Price Travel and Hotelbeds in Dallas, Houston, Austin, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley, Mexico and Canada

• U.S. Travel’s IPW Los Angeles May 3 – 8. Visit San Antonio team and partners met with clients from key target markets of Mexico, Germany and the UK. In addition, the team met with emerging markets of China, Australia, Canada and Latin America. This year, Visit San Antonio had 15 members participating, with staff in over 300 appointments. In addition, the Visit San Antonio Communications team coordinated an epic press conference and conducted appointments during the media marketplace. Destination Experiences coordinated a VIP client dinner, sponsorship activation at the Travel Texas event and a lobby activation

• Team members executed several key promotions and campaigns to assist in the launch of the new Condor Airlines direct flight from Frankfurt to San Antonio. Promotions and campaigns were targeted to key source markets, including nine tour operator campaigns, three social media sales-driven campaigns and destination training. In addition, the team coordinated five familiarization trips for key clients, who agreed to promote and sell the destination and the new flight

• Team members attended ITB China (International Tourism Börse) and conducted a sales mission that included appointments in both Shanghai and Beijing. At ITB China, team members took 42 appointments, met with the U.S. Commercial Service in Shanghai and Beijing, had ten scheduled appointments and hosted a VIP Dinner for 29 clients in Shanghai and 33 clients in Beijing

Government Affairs

The past quarter saw active participation in several key events and initiatives, highlighting the commitment to supporting the local business community, promoting tourism, and fostering economic growth in San Antonio.

Key Highlights for the Quarter

• Attended the annual United State of the City event in support of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Alamo Asian American Chamber of Commerce and Alamo City Black Chamber of Commerce. This event featured an address by Mayor Ron Nirenberg, including his vision for San Antonio’s future, including workforce development, affordable housing initiatives and a transformative airport expansion.

• Met with each of the ten council members to discuss updates on the state of tourism and the various efforts and initiatives Visit San Antonio is undertaking to enhance the tourism experience and boost the local economy. These discussions were crucial in ensuring that council members were well-informed about progress and plans, enabling them to support the mission effectively.

• Presented a San Antonio tourism update at the Tourism Town Hall, invited by Texas Representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, Legislative Tourism Caucus Chairwoman. Held at the San Antonio Zoo, this first Tourism Town Hall event of the year provided a platform for discussing the upcoming 89th Legislative Session and its impact on the travel and tourism industry along with Texas Senator Jose Menendez, Texas Representative Ray Lopez and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert.

These activities highlight ongoing efforts to foster strong relationships with local businesses, community leaders and government officials, promoting and developing San Antonio as a premier tourist destination.

FY24 VISIT SAN ANTONIO ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

Be a Tourist In Your Own Town