Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tourism Economics topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Tourism director reports $47 million in 2024 visitor spending; Q1 hotel revenues roughly match 2024
Summary
Alpine's tourism director told council that statewide data show about $47 million in direct visitor spending in Alpine for 2024. Quarterly hotel revenue and sales-tax receipts for early 2025 were similar to 2024 and 2023, but staff noted a short-term downward trend in total annual travel spending over the last three years.
Chris Ruggia, Alpine's director of tourism, presented the city's first-quarter tourism dashboard and related data at the May 6 council meeting, saying state figures show $47 million in direct visitor spending in Alpine for calendar year 2024.
Ruggia told council that the city's confidential hotel-revenue snapshots from its largest properties show January 2025 matched 2024, while February and March were slightly higher than the same months in 2024 and 2023. However, he said the governor's office travel report showed Alpine's total direct travel spending fell by $1 million in 2024 compared with 2023, a short-term downward movement from a longer-term upward trend.
The director reviewed origin markets and spending patterns: the Midland-Odessa region (Permian Basin) supplied the largest share of visitors and total visitor spending, followed by San Antonio, Dallas'Fort Worth and El Paso; Albuquerque/Santa Fe appeared as an emerging out-of-state market. Ruggia said visitor spending accounts for a large share of restaurant revenue and other local commerce (the dashboard indicated restaurants captured 76% visitor-origin spending during the measured period).
Ruggia also reported operational impacts from a large transient presence in town during a recent event: about 350 rooms were occupied by military personnel during Spirits of the West, he said. That occupancy boosted hotel revenue but reduced available rooms for tourists and could constrain attendance for some visitor-focused events. Councilmembers asked Ruggia to compare countywide and regional trends and consider targeted advertising to higher-spend markets such as San Antonio and Austin; Ruggia offered to produce additional county-level and competitor-city comparisons for future meetings.
The presentation concluded with staff noting opportunities for targeted marketing, continued partnership with Marfa and county stakeholders, and monitoring of room inventory during peak event weekends.
