San Antonio tourism officials are hoping to attract the international travelers who could flood Austin during Formula One events. Casandra Matej, executive director of the San Antonio Visitors and Convention Bureau, says the ideal international visitor would stay a few evenings in Austin and then head to San Antonio.
“There will be San Antonio opportunities to kind of create synergy for that," she said. "We can provided that extended stay for the people that are going to enjoy the race.”
Wealthy European tourists who spend hours traveling across the Atlantic to attend races may be more likely to take an extra hour-and-a-half to visit the home of the Alamo. The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau says that could extend to other cities as well.
"We will see a majority of the visitors staying in Austin that are going to be attending F1 and the activities that surround that week," said Margo Richards, director of tourism at the Austin Visitors and Convention Bureau.
said. "But then they may tack on a side trip to San Antonio, to Fort Worth, to Houston, to Dallas, to other cities in the United States just to take advantage of already being in the U.S."
