Conventions of all kinds are targeting San Marcos,
San Marcos grows as good destination for conventions.
SAN MARCOS — This week, visitors from all over North America gathered to try brisket at Franklin’s in Austin, ribs at Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart and talk all things barbecue at the National Barbecue Association annual convention.
While they were trying the best cuts across Central Texas, they chose to bunk in San Marcos.
The city of about 50,000 that many people see as a blur from Interstate 35 is quickly becoming a destination for conventions and conferences, tourism officials said.
“One day you’ll have a thousand women in for a conference and the next you’ll have all the fire chiefs in Texas,” said Rebecca Ybarra-Ramirez, director of the San Marcos convention and tourism bureau.
The city typically hosts small and mid-size conventions of 100-1,000 people at the San Marcos Conference Center, which was built adjacent to the Embassy Suites, one of the city’s largest hotels. The facility was built just before the economic downturn hit in 2008 and bookings were slow for a while, Ybarra-Ramirez said.
The number of conventions began to increase in 2010, and now, 2014 is poised to be the best year yet, she said. With two new hotels, the Marriott Courtyard and the Comfort Inn, set to open this spring, the city will add another 190 rooms to its capacity.
San Marcos hosts a lot of statewide conventions and a few regional-level conventions. The facility has hosted five small national conferences, including a forensics association and a press photographers group, but the National Barbecue Association is one of the largest, most prominent and most geographically diverse groups to gather here, officials said. The San Marcos Convention and Visitor Bureau, which kicked in a $5,000 sponsorship for the event, hopes that could lead to more such conferences — and more people spending their money at local hotels, restaurants and shops.
“It was the geography, the affordability and the accessibility,” said Roy Slicker, president of the National Barbecue Association.
San Marcos being about halfway between Austin and San Antonio means that convention-goers can fly out of either airport and check out both cities. The National Barbecue Association holds its conference in a different city every year and has previous- ly been in Mobile, San Diego and Memphis. San Marcos’ proximity to barbecue hotspots such as Austin, Lockhart, Luling and San Antonio made it an attractive pick. The lower hotel rates, a charming downtown, shopping at the outlet mall and plenty of entertainment options sealed the deal, Slicker said.
At the convention center in San Marcos, about 350 visitors have attended panel discussions on industry trends, restaurant management and cooking techniques, while a trade show features the latest innovations in barbecue pits, sauces and accessories.