The Destination Group Sales Division confirmed 89,771 total room nights in January. The production in January includes IDEA Public Schools’ 2020 IDEA 20th Anniversary Celebration in August. This event will bring more than 6,500 attendees to San Antonio. The team also confirmed the Oncology Nursing Society for its 2026 and 2029 Annual National Congress. Each of those conferences will bring in more than 10,500 room nights and 6,200 attendees.

In February, we participated in the following customer events:

  • SA to DC Mission Luncheon – Visit San Antonio attended the annual SA to DC 2020 that was led by our San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. There local business leaders met with government officials in Washington, D.C., to speak of important issues facing our community. In conjunction with this event, Visit San Antonio hosted a customer luncheon to promote not only our destination, but also our local community leaders to our D.C.-based clientele.
  • Destination International’s Destination Showcase & Spirit of Hospitality – An annual event hosted by Destination International, Destination Showcase is a Washington, D.C., trade show and educational event. While there, Visit San Antonio networked with primarily D.C.-based customers to promote our convention destination. The Spirit of Hospitality event was the night before the trade show and served as Destination International’s annual award gala.
  • Transforming Leaders Speaker Event – This event takes place in Austin annually and has become a much-anticipated experience in the Austin association community. This year, we featured Ty Bennett speaking about his best-selling book, “The Power of Influence.”
  • PCMA Rocky Mountain Chapter Event – This was a first-time event attended by Visit San Antonio, which attended the chapter’s annual awards banquet. Colorado has proven to be a great feeder city for conventions for San Antonio, and in addition to this event we conducted sales calls to local Denver-area customers.
  • NYSAE MeetNY – This one-day trade show is a must-attend for NYC-area meeting planners. We attended with Synchronicities partners, Visit Anaheim and Visit Baltimore. We also conducted sales calls to various accounts in the area that week.

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

  • Association Forum’s Women’s Executive Forum - The Women’s Executive Forum is an opportunity for women leaders in the association and nonprofit communities to establish and nurture connections while engaging in critical conversations about the unique issues faced by women in the industry. Visit San Antonio is a sponsor of this event in Chicago and will spend the day learning and networking at this event.
  • Experient Envision – This annual event is taking place in Los Angeles, Calif., and provides an opportunity for Visit San Antonio to meet with the influential Experient meeting planner representatives that book San Antonio for conventions.

During January, the Destination Experience Team provided support to 17 reunions, meetings and events as well as 12 convention groups convening in San Antonio. That included a representation of more than 90,600 attendees accumulating to more than 47,200 total room nights. The Destination Experience Managers coordinated and led six planning site visits during the month for groups that will meet in San Antonio between 2020 and 2021.

Representatives from Destination Experience were present at the PCMA Convening Leaders conference in San Francisco, Calif., as well as the Event Service Professional Services conference in Denver, Colo., this month promoting San Antonio as a premier meeting destination.

Key groups meeting in San Antonio in March:

  • Association of Writers & Writing Programs
  • University Interscholastic League
  • American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics
  • National Society of Black Engineers