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San Antonio Tourism Information

San Antonio’s reputation as a great place to visit has long made it a favorite of tourists and meeting planners and there is no doubt that tourists and visitors are a vital part of the local economy. The Hospitality Industry ranks third in its local economic impact, behind only the Healthcare and Bioscience industries. Here are some more interesting facts about the Tourism and Hospitality Industry in San Antonio based on the 2021 Tourism Economic Impact Study.

Tourism In San Antonio

Based on the 2021 Economic Impact Study

• One in seven employed in San Antonio work in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry. Over 145,000 citizens are directly employed by Tourism and Hospitality.
• 41 million visitors came to San Antonio in 2019.
• The overall annual economic impact of the Tourism and Hospitality Industry in San Antonio is $17.4 billion dollars.
• Contributed more than $475 million dollars in taxes to local governments.
• The economic impact of the tourism industry has increased nearly 38% since 2010.
• The size of the industry has quadrupled since 1990.

Visit San Antonio

For decades, tourism marketing, advertising and promotion was handled by the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau which was a department of the City of San Antonio. In September of 2016 the San Antonio City Council voted to allow the SACVB to organizationally change into the private, non profit organization, Visit San Antonio. Visit San Antonio is now the single organization charged with marketing the City leisure, convention and other types of visitors.

The San Antonio Visitor Alliance

The San Antonio Visitor Alliance represents members of all facets of the San Antonio Visitor industry. The role of the Alliance is to promote, protect and advocate for the Visitor Industry as a whole. Their members include hotels, theme parks, attractions, catering companies, transportation companies and more. When the Visitor Industry speaks with one voice, it speaks through the Visitor Alliance.

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Welcome to the San Antonio Tourism Public Improvement District (SATPID)

The Visitor Industry is a key economic generator for San Antonio with a $15.2 billion annual economic impact to the San Antonio metro area.  San Antonio hosts approximately 31 million visitors annually to Bexar County and 37 million to the region.  Additionally, San Antonio’s hospitality industry provides for more than 140,000 local jobs and enhances the quality of life for both visitors and residents through economic growth, contributions to Arts and Historical Preservation efforts, and tax contributions to local and regional government agencies.

In order to help advance San Antonio as a premier U.S. destination, various industry and community partners including the  City of San Antonio ,  San Antonio Hotel & Lodging Association ,  Texas Hotel Lodging Association  and  Visit San Antonio  worked together to implement a new Public Improvement District. Hotels in San Antonio city limits with 100 rooms or more pay a 1.25% assessment on occupied rooms for the purpose of generating funds to market and promote San Antonio as a convention and tourism destination. To learn more about the SATPID  click here .

The Economic Impact of San Antonio’s Hospitality Industry – 2021 Report

• Publication date: Oct 19, 2022
• Language: English
• Format: PDF
• No. of pages: 16

The hospitality sector in San Antonio contributed $16.2 billion to the local economy in 2021. This is almost exactly 93% of the pre-pandemic impact in 2019 and significantly more than the $13.9 billion observed in COVID-impacted 2020.

31.7 million tourists visited the San Antonio metropolitan area in 2021.

The hospitality industry gave the city of San Antonio $229 million in taxes and fees in 2021, and $528 million to all local governments put together.

Over 128,000 people were employed in the sector in 2021. This amounted to 1 out of every 8 workers in the metropolitan area of San Antonio.

The industry’s total payroll came to $3.5 billion, almost matching the $3.6 billion level from 2019. Given that employment in 2021 was only 88% of that in 2019, it is obvious that average wages increased significantly.

In 2021, the hospitality industry’s economic contribution will be more than twice what it was in 2001. Despite the pandemic’s difficulties, the industry was still larger in 2021 than it was in 2017.

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With $19B impact, hospitality industry remains key contributor to San Antonio’s economy

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The economic impact of San Antonio’s hospitality industry hit a record $19 billion in 2022, even as the sector hasn’t completely recovered pre-pandemic numbers of visitors or jobs.

Almost 35 million people visited the San Antonio metro area last year, according to a study commissioned by a handful of tourism-focused entities, including Visit San Antonio and the San Antonio Hotel & Lodging Association.

That’s shy of the 41 million visitors who spent time here in 2019, but that smaller pool still managed to generate 10% more revenue than the pre-pandemic peak, and contribute almost $262 million in tax and other revenue to the City of San Antonio.

Similarly, while the number of jobs in tourism-related industries hasn’t completely rebounded, payroll hit $4.1 billion, surpassing the previous high of $3.6 billion in 2019.

Hospitality’s record-high economic impact is a reminder that tourism remains a mainstay of San Antonio’s economy, said Richard V. Butler, economics professor emeritus at Trinity University, who authored the study with Mary E. Stefl, professor emerita in health care administration. Only manufacturing, health care and biosciences, and the military generate higher revenue, Butler said.

“It’s still one of the most important industries in San Antonio, and not just for its immediate economic impact,” he told the San Antonio Report. “San Antonians enjoy a better quality of life. … Think about how many fewer restaurants and museums and attractions and so on we’d have if we didn’t have the visitors to patronize them.”

Yet the study also reflects the relatively low-paying nature of many of the jobs in hospitality. Roughly 140,000 employees divvied up the $4.1 billion in direct wages; in comparison, health care and biosciences, which generated an estimated $44 billion in economic impact in 2021, paid about $11 billion in wages to roughly 180,000 employees .

Wage growth has risen 15% in hospitality since 2019, Butler noted, as employers have raised pay to help rebuild their workforce following the pandemic . Also, many of the jobs in the industry are part time, he said.

“There are lots of people in the area who need a part-time job, so that’s a good thing,” he said. “And there is a lot more upward mobility [in hospitality] than people think.”

Hospitality employs about 1 in every 8 workers in San Antonio’s metro area, while health care and biosciences employs nearly 1 in 5.

The study divided the hospitality industry into four sectors: transportation and travel, lodging and other accommodations, restaurants and other eating/drinking establishments, and entertainment and recreation activities.

The eating and drinking category alone made up $10 billion, or just over 52% of the total. That’s higher than its previous three-year average of about 50%, the authors wrote, “by a large margin the highest [share] ever.”

Marc Anderson, president and CEO of Visit San Antonio, called news of the record-breaking economic impact “immensely gratifying,” but said the industry still needs to remain laser-focused on bringing visitor numbers and hotel occupancy rates back to pre-pandemic levels.

“What’s most gratifying for us is that the strategies we put into place in 2021 … to broaden the reach of our marketing efforts” is paying off, he said. Visit San Antonio’s focus includes the 41 million travelers who can drive to San Antonio, as well as “key domestic cities” and international travelers.

The latter group, Anderson said, has not rebounded as strongly as leisure travel and conventions.

Because visitors bring “new dollars” into San Antonio, their spending has a multiplier effect, the study found, with each dollar spent generating another dollar of revenue for the local economy.

That boon extends to local government coffers. Visitors pay the lion’s share of hotel occupancy and rental car taxes, which made up more than a third of the $262 million collected by the city last year. Bexar County collected $31 million in visitor-related tax revenue in 2022.

The hospitality industry also generates tax revenue for other municipalities in the region and for entities such as school districts, University Health System and VIA Metropolitan Transit.

“Without the tax payments from the hospitality industry, the city, county and state would either have to reduce services or find additional resources to balance their respective budgets,” the study’s authors wrote.

Zooming out, the study also looked at hospitality’s impact compared to a decade ago.

The industry has grown by 64% since 2012, an “impressive performance” for a decade that included a global pandemic, the authors wrote. Its economic impact that year was $11.6 billion. Employment grew 23% during the same 10-year time period.

The sector’s continued strong growth, especially in the wake of the pandemic, “has us cautiously optimistic” that numbers will have completely rebounded in 2024, Anderson said. “But there’s still so much more we need to do.”

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San Antonio tourism industry to get boost as IPW convention expected to bring $600M into city

San antonio hosting ipw for first time from may 20-24 at gonzalez convention center.

RJ Marquez , Traffic Anchor/Reporter

Luis Cienfuegos , Photojournalist

Joe Arredondo , Photojournalist

William Caldera , Photojournalist

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio’s tourism industry will get a big boost next month as the U.S. Travel Association’s IPW convention is headed to San Antonio for the first time and is expected to generate millions of dollars for the city.

“This is the Super Bowl of international travel for the United States. It’s the most important meeting that we could ever host in San Antonio,” said David Gonzalez, VP of media relations for Visit San Antonio.

IPW is considered to be the nation’s largest travel trade show, promoting travel to the U.S. from the rest of the world. Visit San Antonio bid on and was awarded IPW 2023 by the U.S. Travel Association in 2016.

Attendees will be from more than 70 countries.

“More than 5,000 people are going to come to San Antonio, including more than 500 media from across the world. It’s going to be a great single shot to get San Antonio on the worldwide stage,” said Gonzalez.

IPW 2023 is expected to generate an estimated $614 million in international visitor spending for San Antonio within three years and drive an additional 395,000 international visitors to the city. It’s also the latest signal that the city’s tourism and hospitality industry is bouncing back after the pandemic.

In 2021, the industry generated more than $16 billion in economic impact, which is about 93% of pre-pandemic figures, according to Visit San Antonio’s annual report. The report also showed the industry supported 128,000 local jobs.

Two recent conventions in San Antonio, Ace Hardware Corporation and American Football Coaches Association, generated nearly $18 million in economic impact for the city.

“We’ve had two corporate groups in the last couple of months that have come in, each with more than 6,000 visitors and meaning more than $10 million worth of economic impact for the city,” said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said Visit San Antonio expects to return to pre-pandemic convention and meeting levels by the end of 2024.

Hotel occupancy rates are also getting back on track. Visit San Antonio reported 31.7 million people visited San Antonio in 2021.

“By the end of 2023, we should be back in total occupancy levels to what we were pre-pandemic. Slowly but surely, we are making a great comeback, and actually, San Antonio is making a faster comeback than other cities,” said Gonzalez.

IPW 2023 will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center from May 20-24. The goal is to get the city on the worldwide stage.

“You can’t buy the media exposure you’re going to get from all these media. It would be millions and millions of dollars in media value for all of the great coverage we’re going to get,” said Gonzalez. “We’re really anticipating thousands upon thousands of stories to come out about San Antonio explaining why people want to travel here.”

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About the Authors:

RJ Marquez is the traffic anchor/reporter for KSAT’s Good Morning San Antonio. He also fills in as a news anchor and has covered stories from breaking news and Fiesta to Spurs championships and high school sports. RJ started at KSAT in 2010. He is proud to serve our viewers and be a part of the culture and community that makes San Antonio great.

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Help promote and support the development of the visitor industry in San Antonio. Join SAVA Today!

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Texas Tourism Statistics: How Many People Visit Texas Each Year?

Table of Contents

Highlights 

• According to the Texas Tourism website, in 2016, there were over 258 million domestic visitors and 11.8 million international visitors to Texas, totaling over 270 million tourists.
• Most of these tourists visit major cities such as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth.
• The tourism industry employs about 1.5 million people in Texas and has an economic impact of $116 billion.
• There are many tourist attractions in Texas, including amusement parks, zoos, museums, and state parks.
• Texans are proud of their state’s history and culture and love showing off their great state to visitors from all over the world!
• In Texas, the tourism industry employs more than 1.3 million people and has a total revenue of over $169 billion.
• The California Business Travel Alliance promotes professional educational programs and community outreach while advocating for travel in Texas. 

For more information about Texas, you can also read our highly researched article  How Big Is Texas Compared to Europe – Facts You Never Knew .

How many people visit Texas each year?

Texas is a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. According to the Texas Tourism website, the state welcomed more than 254 million visitors in 2018. That’s an increase of 4.6% from the previous year.

The most popular attractions in Texas include theme parks, museums, and outdoor activities. Visitors come from all over the United States and from countries around the world.

In 2018, the top five countries of origin for visitors to Texas were Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, India, and Germany. No matter where they’re from, visitors to Texas can be sure of a warm welcome and a great time.

If you want to know the best vacation destination in Texas, read our other highly-rated posts.  Which part of Texas is best for vacation?

Why do people visit Texas?

Texas is a massive state with a diverse array of attractions, from the bright lights of Dallas to the beaches of Corpus Christi. As a result, it’s no surprise that Texas is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States.

Whether you’re looking for big-city excitement or small-town charm, you’ll find it in Texas. The Lone Star State is also home to a variety of natural wonders, including the Palo Duro Canyon and Big Bend National Park.

With so much to see and do, it’s no wonder that people keep coming back to Texas again and again.

Road trips to Texas are amazing and lifetime-memorable experiences. If you are planning to visit Texas, do not miss our post about  The Ultimate Guide to Planning the Perfect Texas Road Trip.

How does tourism benefit the state of Texas? 

Texas is home to many major cities, including Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Each year, millions of people visit Texas, spending billions of dollars in the process. This money helps to support local businesses and create jobs.

It also helps to fund important infrastructure projects, such as road maintenance and upgrades. In addition, tourism helps to promote the state’s image and attract new residents. As a result, tourism is a vital part of the Texas economy.

Texas department of tourism

The Texas Department of Tourism is the state agency responsible for promoting and developing tourism in Texas.

Through its various programs, the department works to increase travel and tourism expenditures, create jobs, and improve the quality of life statewide.

In recent years, the department has placed a particular emphasis on promoting Texas as a travel destination for international travelers.

To this end, the department has launched several successful marketing campaigns that have helped to make Texas one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.

The department’s efforts have also been instrumental in attracting major events and conventions to the state.

Texas Tourism Statistics for 2022 

• The number of domestic and international visitors is projected to increase by 4.6% from 2019 to 2022.
• The number of domestic visitors is projected to increase by 4.4% from 2019 to 2022.
• The number of international visitors is projected to increase by 5.0% from 2019 to 2022.
• The total number of tourist visits is projected to reach 279 million by 2022.
• The total spending by tourists is projected to reach $103 billion by 2022.
• The average daily spending by tourists is projected to reach $365 by 2022.
• The total tax revenue generated by tourism is projected to reach $13 billion by 2022.
• The total employment in the tourism industry is projected to reach 2 million by 2022.
• The average salary in the tourism industry is projected to reach $47,000 by 2022.
• The tourism industry is projected to contribute 3.6% to the state’s GDP by 2022.

What are the most popular tourist destinations in Texas?

1. The Alamo 

The Alamo is a historic fort located in San Antonio, Texas. The fort was the site of the Battle of the Alamo, a pivotal battle in the Texas Revolution. Today, the Alamo is a famous tourist attraction in Texas, with over 4 million visitors each year.

2. Big Bend National Park 

Big Bend National Park is a national park located in southwestern Texas. The park is home to a variety of landscapes, including mountains, canyons, and deserts.

Big Bend is also home to a variety of wildlife, including deer, bighorn sheep, and javelinas. Over 400,000 people visit the park each year.

3. Guadalupe Mountains National Park 

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a national park located in western Texas. The park is home to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet.

The park also contains Carlsbad Caverns , a large cave system that features numerous stalactites and stalagmites. Over 220,000 people visit the park each year.

4. Houston 

Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest city in the United States. The city is home to a variety of attractions, including the Space Center Houston, the Houston Zoo, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

Additionally, Houston is home to numerous professional sports teams, including the Houston Astros (MLB), the Houston Rockets (NBA), and the Houston Texans (NFL). Over 7 million people visit Houston each year.

5. San Antonio 

San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas and is home to many popular tourist attractions. These include the Alamo (see above), SeaWorld San Antonio, and Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

San Antonio also has a vibrant nightlife scene and is home to numerous restaurants and bars. Over 32 million people visit San Antonio each year.

Dallas is the third largest city in Texas and is known for its cowboy culture and cuisine.

The city is home to several popular tourist attractions, including Dealey Plaza (the site of JFK’s assassination), the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (a museum dedicated to JFK’s life and legacy), and Cowboys Stadium (the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys).

Dallas is also home to numerous professional sports teams, including the Dallas Mavericks (NBA) and the Dallas Stars (NHL). Over 23 million people visit Dallas each year.

How many tourists does Texas get each year?

According to the Texas Tourism website, nearly 80 million people visited the state in 2018. The vast majority of tourists came from within the United States, with nearly 60 million visitors coming from other states.

However, Texas also receives a significant number of international visitors, with nearly 4 million people coming from Mexico and over 1 million people coming from Canada.

In addition, the state welcomes visitors from all over the world, with significant numbers of tourists coming from Europe, Asia, and South America.

How has tourism affected Texas?

In recent years, tourism has grown rapidly in Texas, bringing both benefits and challenges to the state. On the positive side, tourism provides jobs for Texans and boosts the economy.

However, it can also put a strain on resources, such as water and energy. In addition, large numbers of visitors can negatively impact delicate ecosystems, such as in Big Bend National Park.

As tourism continues to grow in Texas, it is important to strike a balance between preserving the state’s natural beauty and welcoming visitors.

How is the travel industry in 2022?

The future of the travel industry looks promising. By 2022, the industry is expected to continue to grow at a healthy rate.

This growth will be driven by many factors, including an increase in business travel, the continued rise of the middle class in developing countries, and a growing preference for experiential travel.

As a result, we can expect to see more hotels, resorts, and tour operators offering unique experiences that cater to these trends. 

Does Texas rely on tourism?

Texas is also home to a variety of iconic landmarks, such as the Alamo in San Antonio and the Space Center in Houston .

In addition, Texas boasts a thriving food and music scene, making it a popular destination for both domestic and international travelers.

While oil and agriculture are still important industries in Texas, tourism has become increasingly important to the state’s economy in recent years.

In fact, according to the Texas Tourism website, tourism is responsible for generating over $100 billion in economic activity each year. As such, it is clear that Texas relies heavily on tourism.

https://gov.texas.gov/travel-texas/page/travel-research

https://www.ustravel.org/research/monthly-travel-data-report

About The Author

Iram Shahzadi

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