Visit San Antonio presents FY2026 strategic plan, emphasizes group bookings and regional visitors

Mario Bass, representing Business San Antonio / Visit San Antonio, told council the organization’s mission: “to bring the world to San Antonio,” and presented an overview of visitation, bookings and economic impact figures tied to the FY2026 strategy.

Bass said total visitation reached about 39 million in 2024 and that group business (meetings and conventions) is critical because meeting attendees book years in advance and spend more per trip. He noted that San Antonio’s tourism and hospitality industry produced a $21.5 billion economic impact in 2023 according to an independent study commissioned by the San Antonio Visitors Alliance and produced by Trinity University researchers.

Visit San Antonio presented a booking-pace chart showing group room-night pace steady through 2029 but a potential reversal in 2030–2032 as competing Texas cities bring new convention capacity online. Bass said Visit San Antonio is working to defend market share by recruiting groups, capturing relocated groups from competitors rebuilding their centers and sustaining marketing campaigns that drive both regional leisure and group demand.

Bass said Visit San Antonio reported $1.4 billion generated in 2024 from their sales, marketing and PR efforts and that the organization’s FY2024 budget produces an estimated $33 in economic return for every $1 invested (the presenter described that ratio as total destination economic impact divided by the organization’s budget). He said the organization has 912 members that include hotels and other tourism-related businesses and noted the local film rebate of 7.5% that the city offers in addition to a new multi-year state film incentive that is increasing interest from productions.

Council members asked for more detailed data: Mayor Jones and others requested the analysis and assumptions behind the competitiveness claims and the $33 return figure; several council members also asked for breakdowns of visitation by origin (regional counties, Texas cities, Mexico) and for metrics that would show where Visit San Antonio’s marketing drives visitation inside the city beyond the downtown core.

Bass and Visit San Antonio staff offered to provide follow-up materials, including the full Trinity economic-impact report when released in November and more detailed booking and visitor-origin breakdowns.

Ending: Visit San Antonio committed to follow up with the board-approved KPIs, booking-pace data and supplementary analyses on visitor origins and marketing reach requested by council.