Tourism Agency Cheers Chicago Experiment

. October 14, 2008

By Melissa S. Monroe, San Antonio Express-News

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

SAN ANTONIO, TX, December 7, 2005. Luring more overnight travelers to San Antonio is the goal of the convention bureau, but finding that one successful marketing campaign to get them here is always a challenge.

San Antonio may have struck gold with its experimental four-week marketing project in Chicago, which was launched in May.

For $450,000, the city bought advertising with images of the River Walk and the Alamo and put on events with a little taste of Fiesta. The combination apparently persuaded Windy City residents to hop on a plane.

"Everyone was scared to death about it, but the results have been phenomenal. It was a calculated risk," said Janis Schmees, acting executive director of the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau, at the unveiling of the agency's 2006 marketing plan Tuesday.

Air travel during the second quarter from Chicago to San Antonio was up almost 131/2 percent, even though overall aviation was only up 5.3 percent during that time.

That increase in travel from Chicago is the highest percentage ever, said David Cooksey, the bureau's advertising and research manager.

The request for visitor guides from Illinois was also up -- 116 percent -- in May. San Antonio's approach to Chicago included advertising in high-rise building elevators, on cable television, and with events showcasing the city to meeting planners and other decision makers.

After the success in Chicago, the city will try a similar model in Denver and the Kansas City metroplex, Schmees said.

The bureau's $14.69 million budget for fiscal 2005-06 carves out $6.6 million for advertising and $1.33 million for marketing and communications. Its operating budget increased 51/2 percent from the previous year.

This gives the bureau a bit more money to help launch Destination: SA, a long-term plan to add $1.5 billion to the $7 billion that San Antonio's tourism industry contributes to the local economy. The plan combines tourism and economic development initiatives.

In addition to Chicago, the bureau said it will continue to entice more corporate and national association meetings, target travelers from drive-in markets and advertise to foreign destinations such as Canada and Mexico.

"Mexico is like a local market for us," said Frances Schultschik, the bureau's director of international public relations. "There are 105 million people within a two-hour flight from here."

Another success this year came from the city's film department, headed by Drew Mayer-Oakes. With just two people, one recently added, his department reversed a two-year trend in falling economic impact numbers from productions made here.

This year television and film productions brought in almost $6 million after pulling in only a little more than $2 million the previous year and almost $4 million in 2003.

Some of the increase, Mayer-Oakes said, came from the production of the docudrama "Oil Storm" that ran on the FX network in June. He said commercial production in San Antonio continues to grow, with an extra emphasis on Spanish-language television.

But San Antonio still has a long way to go compared with Austin, which drew in an economic impact of more than $100 million from its productions, Mayer-Oakes added.

And the city faces other challenges. It's still trying to fill hotel rooms for 2007 as it anticipates a downturn of almost 25 percent in rooms booked. And the bureau is strategizing how to absorb almost 2,000 hotel rooms with both the Grand Hyatt and JW Marriott coming online.

---|--

To see more of the San Antonio Express-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mysanantonio.com.

Business Contact: