The Destination Group Sales Division confirmed 41,042 total room nights in the month of November. The production in October includes Texas Computer Education Association for its Annual Convention and Exposition for 2028-2030. This event, in January/February of each year, will bring in more than 11,000 attendees and more than 12,000 total room nights for each year.

In December, we participated in the following customer events:

  • Annual Tamale Lift Events – We again visited Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio with our annual customer holiday gifts of tamales. In Austin and Dallas, we hosted a traditional Tamalada, in which we invited customers to learn how to make their own tamales while networking with San Antonio area hospitality partners.
  • IAEE Expo Expo – This year’s event took place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. There, along with our Synchronicities partners, we showcased the destination in a week full of tradeshows, networking and education.
  • Association Forum’s Holiday Showcase – This annual event in Chicago took place on Dec. 17. We spent the day in education sessions and the afternoon in a tradeshow with concentration on Chicago-area customers. That evening, along with our Synchronicities and San Antonio-area partners, we hosted a high-end customer dinner.
  • Texas CVB’s Washington, D.C., Holiday Celebration – This annual celebration combined the majority of the Texas CVB/DMO’s in a holiday event that brings in hundreds of D.C. meeting customers.

January is another busy month for the Destination Sales Team. We will participate in the following events:

  • PCMA Convening Leaders – Convening Leaders, PCMA’s annual convention, will be held in San Francisco this year. With our Synchronicities partners, we will be hosting a networking reception with a focus on PCMA’s board members and targeted Synchronicities customers.
  • Southwest Showcase – An annual tradeshow in Austin, we will be again showcasing San Antonio to our Austin-based customers along with San Antonio hospitality partners
  • Association Forum’s Winter Healthcare Collaborative – This is a seasonal event hosted by Association Forum in Chicago. It brings together healthcare association executives and meeting planners to collaborate on issues facing their sector.

To see what other opportunities there are to partner with Visit San Antonio, please go to members.visitsanantonio.com.

During November, the Destination Experience Team provided support to 24 groups convening in San Antonio, with a representation of more than 21,250 attendees accumulating to more than 47,700 total room nights. The Destination Experience Managers coordinated and led five planning site visits during the month for groups that will meet in San Antonio between 2020 and 2021.

A representative from Destination Experience was present to promote San Antonio at the prior year meeting for the following groups:

  • American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages - In Washington, D.C., Nov. 22-24, 2019 | Definite for San Antonio from Nov. 18-21, 2020 | 3,200 Peak | 6,900 Attendance
  • American Society of Microbiology – In Anaheim, Calif., Nov. 13-16, 2019 | Definite for San Antonio from Nov. 11-14, 2020 | 1,800 Peak | 3,500 Attendance

The National League of Cities (NLC) “City Summit” was held Nov. 20-23, 2019. Each year, the conference is hosted in a different U.S. city – offering tangible and new best practices for government officials to improve the conditions back home. Leaders were able to convene and collaborate on solutions to the common challenges facing America’s cities. The 2019 annual convention welcomed to San Antonio more than 4,000 mayors, councilmembers and leaders from across the United States. This event was a partnership between the City of San Antonio and the Visit San Antonio teams to host mobile workshops, guest tours, youth delegate activities and a dinner for the NLC Board of Directors, as well as the major closing reception. More than 300 local volunteers helped with greeting and wayfinding at the convention center, staffed welcome desks at the hotels, facilitated 18 mobile workshops spotlighting the city, stuffed conference bags and more. Attendees were overwhelmed with the warm welcome and amazing hospitality of the Alamo city. Thank you for helping us make San Antonio shine!

Coming key groups meeting in San Antonio in January:

  • Pax South
  • American Cheer Power
  • Clarion DistribuTECH