Destination Experience Team provided support to 35 meeting/convention groups convening in San Antonio who represented over 80,215 attendees and over 114,640 total room nights. The estimated economic impact of these groups was $84 million. The Destination Experience Managers coordinated and led 12 planning site visits during Q1 for groups who will meet in San Antonio between 2023 and 2024.  

To enhance customer engagement during their convention, Destination Experience launched a new Social Enhancement program offering 15 key groups a hosted reception at the HBGCC. This Social Enhancement is designed to connect VSA, HBGCC and customer leadership in a social setting to further a strong partnership.  

  • The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium was the first recipient of a hosted social enhancement. Celebrating its 45th year of meeting and hosting 9,100+ attendees from over 90 different countries.  

Upcoming January/February Citywide Groups (1,000+ Peak): 

  • Texas Computer Education Association (January 30 – February 2) 

  • Texas Music Educators Association (February 8 – 11) 

  • Texas Association of School Business officials (February 13 – 17) 

  • AASA, The School Superintendents Association (February 16 – 18)  

  • Matco Tools (February 20 – 22)  

  • American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (February 24 – 27)  

Customer Spotlight: 

The Biomedical Engineering Society brought its 2022 Annual Meeting to San Antonio from October 12-15, 2022. BMES took over the South Bank of the River Walk and hosted a rousing event with food, live, and karaoke for over 1200 attendees at Hard Rock Café, Howl at the Moon, and Paesano’s. 

Destination Sales

The first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023 proved to be a strong convention sales production quarter. The Convention Sales Team finished the first quarter booking 183 events, which was 38.6% ahead of our quarterly goal of 132 events. December was the strongest month of the quarter for future room nights booked, having booked nearly 64% of the quarter’s production in this month.  

Q1’s sales production includes many new and short-term businesses for San Antonio93% of the events booked occurred in 2022, or will occur in 2023 & 2024, as well as 50% of these future events are new to San Antonio. In addition, we placed 14 citywide events within our destination, which puts the team on pace to hit our annual goal of 50 citywide events. All event bookings from Q1 will have a future economic impact of $140.8 Million for San Antonio. 

The 1st quarter of FY2023 also saw the following travel and trade shows: 

October 

  • IMEX America – Las Vegas, NV 

  • ASAE 5-Star Weekend – Palm Springs, CA 

November 

  • HPN Partner Conference – Denver, CO 

  • ConferenceDirect CD Forum – Las Vegas, NV 

December 

  • Visit San Antonio’s Tamale Lifts/Tamaladas – Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio 

  • Association Forum’s Holiday Showcase – Chicago, TX 

  • IAEE Expo! Expo! – Louisville, KY 

  • TSAE Celebration Luncheon – Austin, TX 

  • CVB Reps of DC Holiday Luncheon – Washington, DC