HOUSTON — Houston is seeing a huge boost in tourism, with conventions drawing more visitors, according to Houston First Corporation, the city’s destination marketing arm.
This comes as the city prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands more visitors for the FIFA World Cup.
Jarrell Barnes, Sr., who visited the city with his family in April and lives in San Antonio, which is known as the “Tourism Capital of Texas,” said there’s a lot to love about Houston.
“You can find so much to do, regardless of what you’re looking for,” Barnes said.
As temperatures rise, international travelers like Lucas Tessemaker and his family from The Netherlands shared what they look forward to the most.
“Downtown in the basement of the city, because we’ve learned that, in the summer, it’s about 40 degrees,” Tessemaker said.
“We think we’re pretty close to being that new capital, that emerging Capital of Tourism here in Texas,” said A.J. Mistretta, the vice president of corporate communications at Houston First Corporation. “We have an amazing experience in Houston to offer. We have world-class arts. We have great dining. We have attractions like Space Center Houston, which is very popular right now with the Artemis missions.”
In the meantime, Mistretta said Houston is proud to wear the title of Convention Capital of Texas, where he says they’ve seen a surge in convention business. According to Houston First, visitors make an annual $27 billion impact on Houston, and a large part of it is driven by conventions, including events held at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
“This is one of the only campuses that has the experience that we have to offer where we’ve got a huge park out front, we’ve got two connected hotels, it’s very walkable, we’ve got multiple sports arenas around us, so we think that’s a great package, and what we’re seeing is a lot of folks come here, they experience that package, and they want to come back again and again,” he said about the venue.
The competitive convention business is prompting a $1 billion expansion underway called GRB South.
“That will be a new space that will directly connect to our existing space and allow us to go after different kinds of conventions, bigger conventions,” said Mistretta.
GRB South will be a 700,000-square-foot building near major sports venues, over 60 restaurants, green spaces and thousands of hotel rooms. He says they expect to complete it in May 2028, making room for the growing number of tourists. Houston First says the city had 52 million visitors last year, and more are expected this year. A host committee says the FIFA World Cup is expected to draw 500,000 people alone this summer.
“We’re working directly with that host committee here locally in Houston, along with Metro, along with our airport system and other groups to make sure the experience is seamless all the way through,” said Mistretta. “We’re excited to have so many new events coming to our city, and we hope to make some of them annuals.”