{"id":313334,"date":"2026-05-29T02:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313334\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T02:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:33:09","slug":"pickup-lines-south-side-roots-fifth-time-charm-led-visit-san-antonio-ceo-to-tourism-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313334\/","title":{"rendered":"Pickup Lines: South Side roots, fifth-time charm led Visit San Antonio CEO to tourism career"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The latest episode of Pickup Lines<\/a> features Visit San Antonio CEO Mario Bass, who reflected on his South Side upbringing, decades-long hospitality career and vision for the city\u2019s tourism future.<\/p>\n

During a conversation with KSAT\u2019s Ernie Zuniga, Bass shared memories of growing up in a close-knit family surrounded by weekend barbecues and Sunday morning barbacoa. <\/p>\n

A childhood family vacation to the Texas coast first sparked Bass\u2019 interest in hospitality after watching hotel employees interact with guests.<\/p>\n

Bass began his career while attending St. Philip\u2019s College and was rejected four times before finally landing a front desk job at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter in 1996. <\/p>\n

He later transitioned into sales, where he said learning to handle rejection became key to his success.<\/p>\n

After a 23-year career with Marriott International<\/a>, Bass joined Visit San Antonio<\/a> in 2017 and will mark one year as CEO on June 1.<\/p>\n

Bass said he is optimistic about San Antonio\u2019s future, citing projects such as the proposed downtown sports and entertainment district, convention center expansion and airport growth. <\/p>\n

He noted that tourism remains one of the city\u2019s top economic drivers, bringing roughly 39 million visitors to San Antonio each year.<\/p>\n

Watch the full Pickup Lines with Mario Bass in the video player above.<\/p>\n

More Pickup Lines episodes:<\/p>\n

Ernie Zuniga started Pickup Lines, a digital talk show, straight from his vehicle. The segments feature a diverse range of guests, including executives, small business owners, and everyday individuals, as they share personal journeys, news, and stories.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The latest episode of Pickup Lines features Visit San Antonio CEO Mario Bass, who reflected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14019,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-313334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-pickup-lines","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}