Here we go again! After a noticeable uptick in occupancy levels from October’s annular eclipse, officials with area visitor bureaus say that thousands of out-of-town guests are expected to visit the San Antonio area again for April 8′s total eclipse.
“It happened exactly as we predicted. The occupancy was high... but this time around, it’s going to get even better,” said Andres Muñoz, Chief Marketing Officer with Visit San Antonio.
According to Muñoz, 49,000 hotel rooms were available in the City of San Antonio. A lot of those hotels, however, are already sold out, especially those on the Northwest Side where totality will occur.
That same benefit to the hospitality industry carries over into the Hill Country, including the City of Kerrville.
According to Leslie Jones, Publicity and Communications Manager with the Kerrville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the city is anticipating to double or triple in population during the eclipse.
“We will definitely see a significant spike, definitely in sales tax and hotel occupancy tax, so it will be a nice little boom for our local economy,” said Jones.
Restaurants, bars, shopping centers and attractions are also expected to benefit from the influx of visitors, and are reasons why Muñoz believes travelers are choosing the San Antonio area to view the eclipse.
“San Antonio has so much to offer to the experience... the eclipse, per se, is only a couple of minutes of an event, but the weekend is full of things to do. Coming in with your family and going to the parks, going to our museums, learning a little bit about history with the World Heritage sites, it’s an all-encompassing experience that you can do in San Antonio, which is not necessarily the case in many other cities,” Muñoz said.
Up in the Hill Country, Jones said they are excited to welcome visitors that may be visiting for the first time and show them what the Texas Hill Country has to offer.
“It’s very exciting. This is a once in a lifetime event. The fact that we’re going to be getting so much totality for it, and on top of the hype built off of the annular eclipse we were in totality for in October, I think this is also kind of like a whole new experience coupled with that one,” Jones said.
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