Germany
CANUSA Familiarization Trip
April 2 – 4, 2019
CANUSA is Germany’s largest direct seller to North America and has a very well-selected database of frequent long-haul travelers. Through a co-op with Travel Texas, Visit San Antonio will be participating in a marketing campaign that includes out-of-home marketing, creation of new scenic routes and landing pages along with some additional strategic promotions. Part of the campaign included a familiarization trip to each destination for key CANUSA staff. Staff highlighted San Antonio’s iconic attractions, neighborhoods and activities that showcased key areas for history, arts and culture travelers. The clients, who were from the Stuttgart office, were able to identify new experiences that they would use to promote the destination. Staff will be visiting their headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, in June for further training and destination presentations.
United Kingdom
British Airways United Kingdom Tour Operator Familiarization Trip
April 4 – 7, 2019
Visit San Antonio worked strategically with British Airways and Visit Houston in coordinating a familiarization trip with product manager staff from top UK tour operators that included Flight Centre, Premier Holidays, USAirtours, Barrhead Travel, Kenwood Travel, Hayes & Jarvis and Audley Travel. Staff highlighted the destination and region, including the Texas Hill Country. The tour operators represented a good cross-section of the UK market, with some operators specializing in large volumes and others that specialize in bespoke experiences. Our strategic partnership with British Airways and Visit Houston was to encourage fly/drive routes to include San Antonio, utilizing the London Heathrow-to-Houston Intercontinental and the London Heathrow-to-Austin Bergstrom routes. Each tour operator was very impressed with the distinct and authentic feel of San Antonio and its attractions. Timing of the familiarization trip was advantageous, as Travel Texas and the big five Texas DMOs have entered into a direct-to-consumer campaign that will be in effect from April 2019 to April 2020. There will be two to three UK tour operators as the main call to action for the program. Those who were on this trip will more than likely be selected for the UK marketing campaign.
Netherlands
Le Beau Reizen & Travel 2 American Familiarization Trip
April 13, 2019
Le Beau Reizen, a midsized tour operator based in Amsterdam, offers a wide range of products to the United States and also is a specialist in the Deep South regions. Currently, it already offers Texas in its portfolio and decided to visit the destination to explore new opportunities. Le Beau Reizen and Travel2 America work together and sell the San Antonio through Bonotel and Hotelbeds. Staff coordinated its itinerary to highlight neighborhoods and iconic sites. Visiting the destination will help it to explore new itinerary designs and routes that will incorporate West Texas, Big Bend National Park and San Antonio.
Mexico Sales Mission
March 18 - 22, 2019
Staff coordinated a sales mission in Mexico that included Guadalajara and Mexico City. The objective of the mission was to meet with key clients and develop programs and promotions that would increase awareness and the number of visitors coming to San Antonio. The itinerary included meetings with 13 companies from the travel trade, airline, American chamber offices and MICE accounts. The two most promising meetings were with AeroMexico/Gran Plan and Interjet Airlines. AeroMexico/Gran Plan continue to work closely with us on the “La Musica Te Hace Volar (Music Makes You Fly).” This fiscal year, we have already worked together on Michael Buble and Shakira concerts. Staff discussed and agreed to the next two concerts to focus on. In addition, we agreed to a comprehensive destination education component that will include webinars, office presentations and communication via their internal newsletter. With Interjet staff, we discussed ongoing destination education programming and also put in place a Mother’s Day promotion via Interjets social media channel and secured its commitment to be the point of sale for a Monterrey, Mexico, consumer engagement programming taking place in May and June.
Canadian Sales Mission
Feb. 25 – March 1, 2019
As a part of our ongoing efforts to increase visitation from Canada, staff coordinated a sales mission with the objective of meeting with key clients to develop programs and promotions that would create awareness and increase the number of visitors to San Antonio. The itinerary included meetings with 14 companies from the travel trade and U.S. Commercial Services Offices. There also were discussions of co-branding opportunities and scouting of potential venues for consumer engagement opportunities. The two most promising meetings were with Lone Star Grill and the Weather Network Canada. A promotion with Weather Network is scheduled to launch in the September timeframe, and the promotion with Lone Star Grill is scheduled to launch in June and will run through the beginning of August, the restaurant’s peak timeframe.
Monterrey, Mexico
Every weekend in June 2019
Vamos a San Antonio – Let’s go to San Antonio
#vamosasanantonio
This consumer activation will expand from last year to include a new location that will give us access to our target demographic while increasing our footprint in this very important drive market. Staff is currently curating activities, entertainment, etc., that will be highlighted each weekend. The promotions will take place at San Pedro de Pinta and Pueblo Serena. If you are interested in participating or have any questions, please reach out to Sal Garza at salgarza@visitsanantonio.com.
State of Texas Co-op
United Kingdom
April 2019 – March 2020
San Antonio will be participating in a year-long marketing, communication and tourism development campaign with the state and other major destinations in Texas. It will be centered on a content and experiential partnership with Wanderlust and Nikon – and the UK’s most acclaimed travel photography competition. This is a broad-ranging, integrated multichannel approach, mixing both online and offline media and live events, increasing brand awareness, consumer engagement and driving travel to Texas. The campaign will position Texas as THE American destination, both for new travelers to the United States and existing ones, by focusing on high-value target segments. Finally, we are leveraging the unique appeal of Texan cities, to create a narrative that will differentiate Texas from its competitors in America and the world.