March saw a continued upward trajectory in the quantity of media interest, hosting and coverage for San Antonio after the COVID Omicron spike. Visit San Antonio continued to see results on the Storytelling Platforms and developing specific story ideas around Diversity and Culture, San Antonio Icons and Growth and Evolution.
During the month, Visit San Antonio joined Travel Texas to promote our city in media missions to Los Angeles and New York City. This set of missions included productive meetings with national media that are already leading to outlets visiting and preparing coverage about San Antonio. In Los Angeles, Visit San Antonio met with media representing AAA Explorer, Bloomberg News, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Fodor’s Travel, Forbes, People Magazine, Red Tricycle, PureWow, UPROXX, Lonely Planet, Global Traveler Magazine and Modern Luxury. In New York City, Visit San Antonio met with media representing USA Today, Atlas Obscura, Meetings Today, Travel + Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, AFAR, Thrillist, Family Travel Forum, Conde Nast Traveler, Real Simple, Forbes, Reader’s Digest, New York Post, The Epoch Times, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Shape, Worth Magazine.
With March being the hub of Spring Break travel, Visit San Antonio worked hard to promote San Antonio as the go-to destination. One of the key successes was an extensive three live segment broadcast with Austin’s FOX affiliate morning show. During the segments, the reporter covered all there is to do in San Antonio for outdoor fun and specifically during Spring Break from locations at the San Antonio Botanical Garden and kayaking on the River Walk.
Toward the end of the month, we were delighted to announce Visit San Antonio’s partnership with Culinaria for the debut Tasting Texas Wine + Food Festival, flavored by the James Beard Foundation, to be held in San Antonio Oct. 27-30. This is the first-ever statewide food festival the iconic Beard Foundation has been a part of and is sure to make a splash with media and visitors. Visit San Antonio was able to garner coverage on more than 400 outlets from the initial announcement and media pitching will continue in the months ahead so that the momentum sustains through the festival.
As the world slowly returns to a semblance of the pre-pandemic times, we aim for San Antonio to remain a destination-of-choice for millions of travelers each year. Please be sure to share with our Media Relations team what news you have for this spring and summer travel seasons, as well as any news coming for later in the year and into 2023 so we can help amplify your message.
The Communications Department recorded $235,581 in outer market earned media value from 27 outer market media placements logged in February, with the quantity and values still affected by the pandemic changes in media and travel. Coverage recorded for the month included Shondaland, The Boston Globe, Travel + Leisure, Fodor’s Travel, CultureMap Houston, CultureMap Dallas, CultureMap Austin, FOX’s “Good Day Austin,” Laredo Morning Times, My Plain View, Vacationer, Philly Grub Trips, Exhibit City News, Travel Curator, Active Travels; and Mexico’s US Traveler, Cerro Gordo and Turitips.
The top media coverage for March is yet another success in telling the story of San Antonio’s diversity and inclusivity, through a story on Shondaland. Our additional top clips for the month show success in the Media Relations’ team strategy of mining for accolades for San Antonio, with a must-travel pair of stories from Travel + Leisure and Fodor’s Travel.