San Antonio and surrounding areas sit in a unique spot, for not one, but two solar eclipses will be visible from parts of our area over the next six months! Thousands of visitors from all over the country are expected to visit South Central Texas for the astronomical events, bringing with them a noticeable impact on our economy.
Key Points
- An annular eclipse on Saturday, Oct. 14 will feature the moon moving in front of the sun, creating a ‘ring of fire’ in the sky.
- The path of the annular eclipse passes through parts of our viewing area, including San Antonio and the Hill Country.
- The peak of the annular eclipse will only last a little over four minutes in San Antonio, right before noon.
- Parts of San Antonio and the Hill Country will also be able to view a second, total eclipse, which takes place on April 8, 2024.
- The influx of out-of-town visitors to the area is expected to have a noticeable impact on San Antonio’s economy, especially when it comes to hotels, restaurants and attractions.
Thousands of people from all over the country are expected to visit parts of South Central Texas to view the annular solar eclipse on Saturday, Oct. 14.
According to Andres Muñoz, Chief Marketing Officer for Visit SA, the history and authenticity of San Antonio naturally makes it an interesting city to visit. That interest is now amplified due to the Alamo City residing in the path of not one, but two upcoming solar eclipses.
“We know that it’s going to be busy. Since April of this year, we’ve started doing outreach to invite people to visit our destination to see the eclipse, so we already have reports of hotels that are sold out,” said Muñoz.
Brian Dickson, the General Manager of Embassy Suites Landmark in San Antonio said that they’ve seen exactly that.
“October has some energy behind it, there’s quite a lot more people booking those dates, but the April one is sold out,” said Dickson. “When people said this was going to be a big deal, I kind of thought ‘how big of a deal is this really going to be’ and then a couple of weeks later... we’re sold out.”
While the influx of visitors has already proven to impact the hotel industry, Muñoz said that’s not the only part of our economy that is expected to see effects from the eclipse. “It hits every part of the economy. The reality is that those travelers will come in and they’re going to stay in hotels... they’re going to be visiting restaurants, they’re going to be visiting attractions, they’re going to go everywhere within the city, therefore the economic spill is all over town.”
With the second, total eclipse happening in just six months’ time, the economic drive expected this October will hopefully happen again, on potentially even a larger scale, next spring.
“Hopefully those are going to be repeats... with the momentum that one eclipse drives, it will generate more momentum towards more people visiting after it gets shared on social media... and how special it was the first time around,” said Muñoz.
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