Conventions are slowly returning to San Antonio, bringing tourism {dollars}

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Congresses, mass gatherings, and gatherings – the lifeblood of the San Antonio tourism industry – have begun a slow return to the city after an anemic year marked by hundreds of rejections.

The city reported 46 upcoming conventions and meetings scheduled for the Henry B. González Convention Center before September, excluding three that had already taken place in May.

Events include club meetings for dentists and band masters, anime conventions, martial arts competitions, showcases for wedding shops, and much more. The influx of visitors to the city will bring money to the city center in the form of hotel rooms, restaurant orders, and other spill-over expenses.

And these are just the meetings scheduled for the convention center. Other events will take place in private locations, such as the 130th Annual Convention of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, attended by more than 400 visitors to the Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk last week.

Last month, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said roughly 60 events and meetings were booked for the convention center before September. When asked about the reduced numbers last week, a city spokeswoman said some may have already happened.

Nirenberg also pointed out at the time that restrictions on outdoor events taking place in city facilities like the River Walk could soon be lifted.

Since the pandemic began in March last year, the city has lost 297 citywide and internal meetings to cancellations, according to Visit San Antonio, representing an estimated economic loss of $ 475 million. The organization has not reported any cancellations in the past month.

“Given the loss of nearly half a billion dollars in economic impact, it is a seismic blow affecting nearly every sector of our community,” said Dave Krupinski, interim president and CEO of Visit San Antonio. But the organization has seen “consistently positive trends for the return of the convention business,” he said, beginning with the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in March and April. “We are very optimistic about going forward.”

Visit San Antonio books 250 meetings a year in a typical year, of which around 90 are held at the convention center, a spokesman said.

The 37 organized by the group for the remainder of the year has an estimated economic impact of $ 108.3 million, the spokesman said.

One of the most immediate sectors affected by conventions are hotels, where room occupancy has improved since 2020 but has not fully recovered. Paul Vaughn, senior vice president of Source Strategies Inc., a San Antonio-based hospitality advisory group, said 2020 had theworst hotel performance “ ever since the company started tracking hotel numbers in the late 1980s.

Source reported Thursday that San Antonio accommodation revenue for the first quarter of 2021 was down 23.2% from the first quarter of 2020, which ended when the pandemic began. A statement accompanying these figures reads: “Some demand is returning.”

“The hospitality sector has survived five consecutive quarters of significant sales and demand losses, which have hit the largest metros the hardest,” the statement said.

The return to pre-pandemic recreational spending is also reflected in increasing demand for restaurants. Data from OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation company, shows the number of diners at restaurants in San Antonio has increased skyrocketed in the past few weeks. In the last 30 days, half saw more reservations and walk-ins than at the same time in 2019 – on some days even 40% more.