Visit College Station reports 2024 spending spike, new brand and plans for signature events
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Summary
City tourism staff reported hotel occupancy and revenue growth in 2024, a $469 million estimated visitor spend, a new Visit College Station brand, and ongoing strategic planning and convention-center feasibility work.
City tourism staff and the tourism advisory committee updated the City Council May 22 on Visit College Station efforts, reporting growth in hotel metrics for 2024, a new brand book and ongoing strategic planning and convention-center feasibility work.
“From the very beginning, honor and service instilled a sense of humility in Aggies…that spirit has never left us,” Jeremiah Cook, assistant director for tourism, read from the tourism brand book to illustrate the new message the city will use to promote College Station. The office rolled out the new tagline, “Learn why you’ll love it here,” and a brand book the city intends to share with community partners.
Economic indicators: Cook told council that visitor spending in College Station totaled about $469 million in 2024, up 7.8% year-over-year. The city recorded hotel-occupancy and average daily-rate growth in 2024 — including increases vs. comparable college towns — and the conventions and sports team reported bringing in 66,363 room nights in 2024, a 14% increase year-over-year. Cook emphasized efforts to diversify demand beyond football weekends and said the office recorded more than 2,300 prospecting contacts in 2024 to attract meetings, sports and events.
Events and marketing: Staff highlighted summer sports and convention bookings that will bring thousands of athletes and visitors, including a multi-sport tournament expected to draw about 4,500 room nights. The tourism office said it is deploying marketing to four target audiences — leisure travelers, prospective students and families, former students and sports tourists, and meeting/sports planners — and is using the new brand book and a redesigned visitcollegestation.com site to centralize information for partners.
Committee and planning work: Courtney Phillips, chair of the tourism committee, said the new advisory group wants to support staff, “help facilitate events, big and small,” and recommended that the city invest in signature events that can drive room nights. Cook said Jones Lang LaSalle is working on the tourism strategic plan and that steering-committee work will begin at the May 28 tourism-committee meeting; phase 2 of the convention-center feasibility study is being refined with staff and will return to council later this summer.
Why it matters: Staff characterized tourism as an economic-development tool that supports restaurants, retail and hotels year-round. Councilmembers asked about metrics tying room nights to sales-tax receipts, the city’s role in pursuing film production and the expected ROI of a possible convention center; staff said partnerships with Texas A&M University and local hotels are central to sales efforts and that more analysis will come with phase 2 of the feasibility work.
No formal action was requested; staff and the tourism committee asked for continued council support for funding and strategic investment in signature events and marketing.
