THE Texas Tourist Town for Out-of-Staters: SA, Austin or DFW? (Houston: sale, hotels)

[TootsieWootsie]

Having lived in Houston, I can give you an absolute: it ain't there.
But, does anyone have any statistics or numbers on which town does have the most tourists visit?
My guess would be San Antonio, but how many tourists does Austin get from out-of-State visitors? How about DFW?
I am only interested in the tourists from out-of-State. Texans, as we know, visit everywhere.

[Trainwreck20]

Statistically, SA kills everywhere else for out of state tourism...I saw the numbers a while back, let me see if I can go find them again....

Hmmm...from an interesting site (Texas Tourism), but not sure if this is in state as well as out of state. I would have to read a lot more to find out.

Total Spending
4,950,079,000 Bexar
10,426,951,000 Harris
3,158,619,000 Travis

DestinationSpending
4,609,088,000 B
7,737,080,000 H
2,804,039,000 T

Earnings
1,344,969,000 B
3,673,288,000 H
836,129,000 T

Employment
52,580 B
95,650 H
34,270 T

State TaxReceipts
283,658,000 B
472,965,000 H
162,005,000 T

Local TaxReceipts
104,144,000 B
187,954,000 H
68,571,000 T

2005 top 10 individual attractions for out of state visitors
1. Alamo
2. Paseo del Rio (River Walk)
3. Six Flags Over Texas
4. South Padre Island
5. Sea World of Texas
6. Moody Gardens
7. State Capitol
8. State Fair of Texas
9. San Marcos Outlet Malls
10. Padre Island National Seashore

[car957]

It's sad that the outlet malls in San Marcos rate 9th. I would have thought it would have been the speedtrap in Schertz.

[Trainwreck20]

Lol...that lists tourists stops, not stopped tourists....

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Lol...that lists tourists stops, not stopped tourists....

LOL!!!!

What do you mean Southfork Ranch is not on that list. Come on
I still see TONS of lost tourists w/ black knee high socks on w/ their shorts and a camera wrapped around their neck trying to get there.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by TootsieWootsie

Having lived in Houston, I can give you an absolute: it ain't there.

What does that mean? I heard that Houston was one of the most visited cities in the U.S. There's plenty for tourists to get into.

Still, I would recommend San Antonio.

[stoneclaw]

^^^ I agree. Houston was ranked as what the 9th most visited city in the country just recently? I don't see how DFW and Austin could be on this list and Houston isn't. I still would hand the tourist crown to San Antonio though!

[lonestar2007]

I love SA, such a fun town, but overall, it would have to be DFW. Between Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth and surrounding areas, there is just tons of stuff to do and see. No telling how many troop through the Fort Worth stockyards everyday. I had taken some calves over to the sale barn in the stockyards when it was still active, and in the middle of the sale, a whole troop of Japanese guys with cameras walk down to the ring and proceed to take pictures while the auctioneer never misses a beat. It was a pretty commonplace occurance.

Arlington was more or less built on GM, Great SW industrial park, and tourist trade. Now along with 6 Flags, HH Water park, Rangers, they also got the Cowboys (well, not quite there yet, but soon).

GP has Lonestar Park, Wax Museum, more.

Dallas, just too much to list.

Southfork.

NasCar not that far out of the area.

We should get Minnie Mouse in on this. I don't remember exactly all the places they went to on their trip, I know DFW for sure and SPI, Corpus, etc. Would like to see her imput.

[Trainwreck20]

I used to travel weekly down to the Houston area for work and stay in various hotels SE of town toward Clear Lake, and the number of foreign tourists was just amazing. Many to see NASA, but I suppose they were doing any number of other things. Lots of French and German talk going on around the continental breakfast....wonder if they thought it was very continental? Anyway, I see much fewer foreign tourists when in any other city, although they are noticeable in SA. I haven't spent enough time in hotels in Dallas to see em.....

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I used to travel weekly down to the Houston area for work and stay in various hotels SE of town toward Clear Lake, and the number of foreign tourists was just amazing.

How long ago was this? It's still like that down here.