City leaders expect a long-in-coming new hotel tax that could provide money for homelessness services to be ready for final City Council approval within the month. On Monday, the Austin Business Journal reported that the proposed Tourism Public Improvement District tax levy has reached one of the needed thresholds with local hoteliers, with a second […]
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Posted inAustin
Visit Austin offers look at strategy to support hotels during convention center closure
Staff from Visit Austin plan to aggressively market the city to new and recurring visitors in the coming years as part of a three-part strategy to support the local hotel and convention industry during the four-year closure of the Austin Convention Center. Last week, the Tourism Commission received a presentation from the tourism organization, which […]
Posted inAustin
SXSW’s $380M economic impact shows return to prepandemic heights
This year’s South by Southwest appears to have had a local economic impact on par with the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which nearly wiped out the popular music, tech and film confab in 2020. An analysis from Greyhill Advisors found this year’s event generated $380.9 million in economic activity, a jump of $100 […]
Posted inCity Council
Council has its eyes set on preparing for 2024 total solar eclipse
With Austin in the direct path of a rare solar eclipse that will take place April 8, 2024, city departments will soon begin preparing for many thousands of astronomy tourists who are expected to travel to Central Texas to get the best view possible. With the eclipse not expected to reoccur in the area for […]
Posted inPlanning
Real estate leaders, developers eye start of proposal process for convention center project
Leaders in Austin’s real estate and development community learned plenty about the planned expansion of the Austin Convention Center during a panel discussion last week, but they were left waiting as to when the contracts for design, engineering and contracting work on the facility will be released for proposals and bidding. The May member breakfast […]
Posted inAustin
Convention center fate looms as Tourism Commission scrutinizes Visit Austin budgets
The most recent meeting of the city’s still-new Tourism Commission followed what could become a regular dynamic for the group: detailed “in the weeds” parsing of budgets and policies related to Austin’s tourism industry, with the proposed expansion of the Austin Convention Center looming over everything. Monday’s meeting bore that out during an hour-plus analysis […]
Posted inCity Hall
Visit Austin audit revised
The City Council Audit and Finance Committee accepted the results of an audit of the contract between the city and Visit Austin at last week’s meeting. The audit did not find any significant contract compliance issues with Visit Austin, which received $14.9 million from the city for the 2018 budget year. However, auditors found that […]