Austin’s convention center business will be on hold until 2029 as the city works to rebuild its downtown facility. The old Austin Convention Center closed earlier this year and has already been demolished. Construction is underway on a larger venue that will offer 70 percent more rentable space, but it is not expected to open in time for the important spring festival season for another five years.
The absence of the convention center is already affecting hotel performance in downtown Austin. According to the Austin Business Journal, many hotels are experiencing double-digit drops in year-over-year revenue. In previous years, group and business travelers could account for up to half of bookings at some properties, highlighting the impact during this extended construction period.
To address these challenges, Visit Austin has launched an extensive marketing campaign aimed at sustaining tourism. The new Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID), which adds a 2 percent nightly fee to most hotel rooms, is projected to raise nearly $30 million next year. These funds will support incentives, sales efforts, and robust marketing initiatives designed to offset the loss from the convention center closure.
Thirty percent of TPID funds are allocated for advertising campaigns and another 30 percent for sales strategies. Twenty percent will be used for convention-related incentives despite the current lack of a central venue.
This funding allows Visit Austin to move from seasonal advertisements to continuous campaigns across more markets. The agency is promoting Austin as a meeting-friendly “campus,” emphasizing event capacity available through downtown hotels and various venues rather than focusing solely on a single site. Officials have adopted a “mini-wide” booking approach—distributing conferences among multiple properties—and have already secured 37 such events scheduled between 2026 and 2028.
Efforts are also being made to boost leisure travel by expanding advertising into both drive-in and fly-in markets such as Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Monterrey, Mexico. Mexican visitors have become an increased focus as Austin positions itself as an alternative destination compared with Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio.
Visit Austin has noticed decreased digital traffic due in part to AI-driven trip planning tools. To counter this trend, it launched a redesigned website this fall that aims to serve both human users and generative AI systems by making information more accessible for search engines powered by artificial intelligence.
Tourism officials report early signs of improvement heading into 2026 thanks in part to major events like ACL Fest and SXSW along with anticipated benefits from World Cup matches hosted nearby.
“Tourism officials say early indicators point toward a steadier 2026, bolstered by ACL Fest, a strong SXSW outlook and expected spillover from World Cup matches in nearby host cities.”
