Boerne tourism staff report mixed Q2 performance, shift to "visitor days" and targeted ad tactics

Boerne tourism staff presented second-quarter performance metrics for April through June 2025 and recommended changing how the bureau measures visitation, saying recent changes in DataFis modeling have raised reported trip counts and can obscure overnight hotel demand.

Presenter, a staff member, told the board the bureaus fair market share was 5.84 for the quarter and the destination achieved roughly 6.07, with occupancy at 58.86 percent for the same period, down from the previous year but higher than peer markets in the competitive set. "We're gonna remove all of the 1 day trips out of this data," the Presenter said, explaining the change is intended to isolate overnight hotel stays from one-day local visits.

The nut graf: staff said the DataFi platform altered how it aggregates visits (removing "gap days" that previously consolidated separate visits into a single trip), producing a year-over-year increase in reported trips (about 24.5 percent) that does not necessarily reflect more overnight stays. The bureau recommended focusing on visitor days rather than trip counts for hotel performance reporting.

In the details, staff showed two-plus-day, 50-plus-mile hotel visitation with June as the highest month in the quarter. Staff also said Hill Country Mile pedestrian and retail traffic was down year over year for April through June. Staff cautioned that spending reports tied to ZIP code 78006 include purchases such as vehicle and home-improvement spending (car dealerships, Home Depot, grocery) and therefore overstate tourism-driven dollars for the Hill Country Mile footprint.

On demographics, staff reported the predominant visitor age cohort shifted in the data presentation to the 45-to-64 range and that education levels among Hill Country Mile visitors alternated between high-school and bachelorlevel percentages (roughly in the mid-40s percent range). Board members discussed whether DataFi can distinguish trade-school credentials from standard education categories; staff said they would ask DataFi about that capability.

Staff reviewed advertising and earned-media results since the prior meeting: a print ad placed in Texas Highways; renewed activity on TripAdvisor; video and image campaigns; podcast sponsorships and newsletter placements; and connected-television buys with a reported 99 percent completion rate. Staff reported that an AJR Media campaign produced 611 trips to Boerne and an estimated 224 room nights attributed to ad-serving data. "It's a little creepy, but it's really, really interesting to see those people actually come into market after being served up that advertising," the Presenter said.

Staff also summarized influencer and creator activity, noting completed annual contracts with creators including SA Foodie, Explore with Wesley and a repeat engagement with a Texas Eats First creator, plus multiple unpaid creator visits that generated additional visibility.

The presentation closed with a recommendation to judge hotel performance using visitor days and overnight metrics rather than raw trip counts, and with staff saying they will provide follow-up materials (maps, clarifications on footprint definitions and additional campaign statistics) by e-mail or at the next meeting.

Less critical details: staff noted demand of 94,210 room nights in a broader JanuarytoSeptember period referenced in the presentation and flagged that removing one-day trips will change historical comparability of trip counts; staff said they will continue to refine reporting visuals for clarity.

Provenance: first presentation of fair market share and methodology is recorded at 00:02:40 and discussion of DataFi methodology and visitor-day recommendation is last recorded at 00:05:22.