San Antonio Business Journal
By W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
In what may prove one of the more impressive turnarounds for a San Antonio industry, the city’s tourism and hospitality sector generated $19 billion in economic impact in 2022.
That’s an all-time high for the market and a 10% increase over the industry’s 2021 performance.
The latest numbers, tied to a new study conducted by Trinity University professors Richard Butler and Mary Stefl and commissioned by multiple entities, including Visit San Antonio, show that the city attracted 34.8 million visitors in 2022 and that the industry employed more than 140,000 workers — a nearly 10% increase over 2021 figures.
"There is so much more work to be done,” Visit San Antonio President and CEO Marc Anderson said.
That work, he noted, includes helping restore hotel occupancy, overall visitation and tourism-supported job numbers to pre-pandemic levels by late 2024, if not sooner.
The latest economic impact figure includes a significant boost in contributions to city taxes and fees totaling more than $260 million.
A separate study conducted by national research firm D.K. Shifflet found that, with more than 100 new restaurants and a dozen new hotels opening since the onset of the pandemic, the San Antonio industry’s payroll has surpassed 2019 levels.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said industry leaders’ efforts amid the uncertainty initially caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020 have had a “tremendous” impact on the local economy.
Yet, San Antonio still has some important ground to make up as it looks to fully restore group and convention impacted by the pandemic across America.
"While we celebrate surpassing pre-pandemic benchmarks in crucial categories, we must unite to further increase business demand in both leisure and meetings and conventions,” Visit San Antonio Chair Phil Stamm said.
As I reported in February, tourism, economic development and airport officials in San Antonio have aligned to recruit more international travelers, businesses and flights to the Alamo City.
The initiative, led by Visit San Antonio, greater:SATX and San Antonio International Airport, launched in Europe as part of an expansive global outreach.
“We started planning this back in September,” Anderson told me. “It happened very organically, but also very strategically.”
Industry leaders believe San Antonio is primed to tap into an emerging sector that could further boost tourism’s impact on the region — bleisure travel.
Steve Atkins, principal and president of The Atkins Group, an advertising agency with deep tourism industry roots, said San Antonio is well positioned to recruit these “digital nomads” who are seeking to mix business and leisure travel in a hybrid work environment.
Capturing that business, Atkins said, “can mean everything in the world to San Antonio.”
The Texas Restaurant Association’s San Antonio chapter and the San Antonio Visitors Alliance also commissioned the new study.