Department: Destination Sales

Convention Sales Production:

  • September production
    • 14 bookings worth 16,053 room nights.
  • September Lead Production
    • 58 Leads worth 100,156 total room nights.
  • Citywide Cancellations:
    • 55 groups, representing more than 332,926 total room nights and 392,655 attendees. Economic impact of $224,309,550.

Customer Engagement

Along with several customer virtual engagements that we participated in this month, the Visit San Antonio team attended the Texas Society of Association Executives’ (TSAE) New Ideas Conference. This year’s conference was virtual and focused on the power of meetings and how we can plan for an uncertain future. Visit San Antonio was involved in welcoming the group during the first business session, as well as presenting at the opening General Session. In addition, we hosted a customer virtual dinner along with several of our area partners. Fourteen Texas meeting planner customers and their guests joined us to enjoy a chef curated three-course dinner party, where all ingredients of the meal were mailed to each guest prior to the dinner.

Department: Destination Experience

Client Engagement

This month, we have hosted a variety of virtual engagement events with the consistent primary focus to keep San Antonio top of mind for meeting planners. These offerings have continued strong since the early stages of the pandemic and will be continued through the next fiscal year. A few of these are spotlighted below:

  • Coffee Chat (Sept 29): Held on National Coffee Day, this informational panel discussion featured top San Antonio industry leaders to address questions provided by clients holding meetings in 2020-2022 in our city. Topics included best practices for health and safety in a post-COVID world at the convention center, hotels and around the city to reaffirm assurance that San Antonio is a safe place to both travel to and convene.
  • Taco Trot 5K (Oct 4): With a focus on health and wellness, we encouraged clients to get out and get active with the virtual Taco Trot 5K benefiting the youth programs at San Antonio Sports. Participants received commemorative gifts including a taco-shaped race medal for their efforts.
  • Halloween Boo Boxes (Oct 19): Clients received spooky goodies to get them in the Halloween spirit. Our “Boo” boxes featured local sweets and interactive treats sure to entertain the whole family. We recognized that trick or treating looked different in many major cities this year and wanted to be sure to send some love from the Alamo city.

Site Visits and Promotional Opportunities:

This month we held three planning site visits for definite 2021 groups. It was great to be out showcasing the city while visiting partners with our clients. We received a resounding response from meeting planners on how impressed they are with the health and safety measures available and the well-thought-out guidelines and protocols in place across the venues and hotel properties. We look forward to welcoming more site visits in the coming months.

A virtual prior-year promotion was launched online this month for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s North American Conference 2020 that will be held in San Antonio from Sept. 29 – Oct. 2, 2021. Visit San Antonio prepared a special message from President and CEO Casandra Matej to encourage attendees to visit next year, as well as some special footage and recipe demos.