Downtown San Antonio recovers ahead of IPW travel show
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San Antonio's downtown activity has returned to 63% of its pre-pandemic rates, recovering faster than other major Texas cities, according to anonymized mobile device data analyzed by University of Toronto researchers.
Why it matters: Downtowns became ghost towns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as people sought to "flatten the curve" by staying at home as much as possible.
- Even as the pandemic has ebbed, the era of remote and hybrid work it ushered in means fewer people are visiting restaurants, bars and shops.
- That has big implications for downtown economies, which have historically relied on commuting workers who spend money before, during and after their daily 9-5s.
Yes, but: San Antonio's downtown also depends on tourists who stay in hotels and visit the Alamo and the River Walk, in addition to bars and restaurants.
Zoom in: San Antonio's tourism and hospitality industry has been recovering from pandemic lows.
- Tourism and hospitality-related businesses had a $16.2 billion impact on our economy in 2021, per a Visit San Antonio study by Trinity University professors.
- That means we've reached about 93% of our pre-pandemic tourism and hospitality impact.
The big picture: Downtown activity has returned to — or even exceeded — pre-pandemic rates in several U.S. cities as of February 2023. These include:
- Salt Lake City; Bakersfield and Fresno, California; and Columbus, Ohio.
Meanwhile: San Francisco, St. Louis, and Portland, Oregon, have seen a return, based on mobile device use, of less than 40%.
How it works: The researchers essentially treated smartphones and other mobile devices as a proxy for their owners. If a device pings a nearby cell tower, it's a good bet that's where the device's owner is.
- For this analysis, "downtown" is defined as the area of a given city with the highest employment density.
What's next: San Antonio will soon be on display as a tourism destination. The nation's largest travel trade show is coming to downtown beginning Saturday through May 24.
- The U.S. Travel Association's IPW is expected to draw more than 5,000 travel professionals from 70 countries to the Henry B. González Convention Center, per Visit San Antonio.
- That would be a lot of cellphones pinging in the downtown area.
What we're watching: Whether IPW can help further drive downtown's recovery.
By the numbers: The trade show could create about $614 million in spending from international visitors within three years, per Visit San Antonio.
- It is expected to bring an additional 395,000 international visitors to San Antonio.
What they're saying: "As international travel to the U.S. fully returns, serving as an IPW host city creates long-lasting benefits that will boost demand for travel to San Antonio and Texas well into the future," Geoff Freeman, U.S. Travel Association president, said in a statement.