The Austin Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID) and Visit Austin recognize the significant headwinds currently challenging our market, including the broader U.S. economy and the multi-year closure of the Austin Convention Center (ACC). Despite these obstacles, this Impact Report demonstrates the focused activity and strategic investments made by the Austin TPID to aggressively drive the demand curve and generate critical business for district members. The data within confirms that the Austin TPID is already making a tangible impact on room nights and revenue.

The initial results from key Austin TPID initiatives confirm a strong beginning to the district's demand-generation efforts. The Hotel Activity Incentive Program (HIP) has secured 131 definite bookings, totaling 76,888 room nights and generating over $21.5 million in contracted room revenue. The Expedia Neighborhood Campaign, supporting Select Service and Extended Stay properties, successfully delivered $3.25 million in hotel revenue and 24,061 room nights with an efficient advertising spend of just $63,962. Additionally, the initial advertising study, evaluating the 2025 summer advertising campaign (May through September), revealed a highly successful $374 return on investment for every dollar spent, driving an estimated 400,000 incremental trips, directly influenced by our advertising.

Looking to the future, the sales pipeline for the post-expansion ACC (2029–2039) remains strong, with potential bookings representing 939,538 Total Room Nights (TRNs) and an economic impact of over $690 million. Efforts to secure business during the ACC closure are also yielding results, with campus-style definite wins accounting for over 105,000 TRNs. More detailed results on all programs can be found in the sections below.

The Hotel Activity Incentive Program (HIP) is a strategic initiative providing financial incentives to Austin Tourism Public Improvement District (ATPID) hotels to secure competitive group bookings, thus strengthening Austin's market position. Its core benefit is a dual one: boosting guest room revenue while enhancing the city's appeal to event organizers. Incentives are paid post-event directly to the end-user organizations, based strictly on the event's performance metrics.

Initial results indicate a strong appetite for the program. The HIP has seen 401 proposed applications, of which 131 have officially been converted into definite bookings. This activity represents a massive potential of 314,460 proposed room nights, with 76,888 room nights now definitively booked. The potential financial impact is substantial, forecasting $80,090,717 in room revenue, while the definite bookings secured so far confirm $21,523,034 in immediate room revenue for the city. To achieve this impressive pipeline, the program has offered a total of $3,124,646 in proposed incentives, committing $1,005,049 specifically to the definite bookings already secured.

Want to learn more or run through a demo of the application process? Reach out to Tim Sullivan, Executive Director of the Austin Tourism Public Improvement District at tsullivan@austintpid.org.

The Expedia Neighborhood Campaign marks a milestone as the first dedicated campaign by a Texas Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID) specifically aimed at driving demand for Select Service and Extended Stay properties. This focus is crucial for ensuring the positive impact of TPID investment is distributed city-wide.

Since the campaign’s launch in mid-October, through the end of November with an advertising spend of $63,962, it has generated impressive results with $3.25 million in hotel revenue and 24,061 room nights. On average, this equated to $30,116 in revenue across 108 properties.

The campaign delivered over 2.6 million impressions and led to 1.2M destination searches tracked among the exposed audience, signaling that the campaign is actively catalyzing new travel consideration, not just converting existing travel planners to Austin TPID properties. 

The future sales outlook is strong, particularly for major bookings. For the Future ACC, covering the period of 2029–2039, 16 groups are definite and 75 groups are currently tentative and for the future building, representing 939,538 Total Room Nights (TRNs) and an economic impact of over $690 million. 40% of these groups would not have fit in the old convention center due to space.

Focusing on the ACC closure time frame, the campus-style definite wins account for 28 events totaling over 105,000 TRNs. Additionally, 11 tentative campus-style leads are in the pipeline for the ACC closure period, representing over 50,000 TRNs.

Alongside the Austin Hotel Community, the Visit Austin Sales and Sports teams will continue to focus on strategies that align with the 25-30 2.0 Plan. These include but are not limited to:
• Execute the in-house meetings strategy
• Expand the Hotel Activity Incentive Program (HIP)
• Execute and refine the campus-style convention strategy
• Execute a robust meetings incentive program that prioritizes need time periods for short-term and long-term bookings
• Create and expand on opportunities and programs to bring customers in-market to showcase Austin 
• Continue to develop and elevate out-of-market sales activities
• Visit Austin Sales Team - Hire Business Development, Trust Fund Admin and In-House Goals 
• Execute citywide sales strategy to secure post expansion convention center groups
• Grow and expand sports venue and facility partnerships

The updated 25-30 2.0 Plan will be distributed to the Austin TPID district in early 2026.

Made possible by TPID, Visit Austin launched its first-ever Advertising Study with SMARI Insights for the Summer 2025 campaign, a tourism industry leader in measuring advertising effectiveness and economic impact. This initial wave is meant to establish a baseline understanding of marketing influence for media placed May through September 2025, prior to the implementation of the TPID with year-round support.

The initial study evaluating the 2025 summer advertising campaign (May through September) revealed highly successful results. Visit Austin delivered a robust $374 return on investment for every dollar spent on advertising. Furthermore, the campaign is credited with inspiring 400,000 incremental, ad-influenced trips, translating to nearly $748 million in total ad-influenced visitor spend in the destination. The campaign was also highly effective in influencing traveler perception, as recalled exposure to Visit Austin ads more than doubled the share of travelers who view Austin as an excellent or very good travel destination.

Overall, recalled exposure to the ads significantly boosted the likelihood that travelers in target markets would visit Austin in the next 12 months, showing an increase of 122%. Finally, the messaging proved effective in reinforcing Austin's identity, with the belief that the city has a strong music and creative culture growing even more when travelers recalled seeing the ads.

Visit Austin has also launched the Meet More Austin meetings campaign. It’s too early to share preliminary results; however, the Meet More Austin campaign video is available to be viewed and shared via YouTube. The campaign features voice over and music from local Austin-based musicians, THEBROSFRESH.

For comprehensive information on the Austin TPID, including the Service Plan, FAQs, and this newsletter archive, please visit austintpid.org.

We ask that you not forward this newsletter. Should someone within the Austin TPID need to be added to this distribution, please email us at atpid@visitaustin.org.