While plenty of Texas towns eagerly anticipate big events like the annual county fair or the Friday night football game between high school rivals, it’s a whole other level of excitement for a city to put an actual countdown clock on top of its website.
But that’s exactly what Fredericksburg’s Visitor’s Bureau has done, as the Hill Country shire counts down to one of the biggest cosmic events of our lifetime.
Fredericksburg and other Hill Country communities just north and west of San Antonio have been preparing for an influx of visitors from across the world drawn to the prime viewing area for two solar eclipses taking place over Texas within the next nine months. The first occurred last fall and the other follows in the spring, a rarity, as well as a rare opportunity for a one- or two-day economic windfall.
The first event on Oct. 14 was an annular solar eclipse, also known as a “ring of fire” eclipse, in which the moon was seen moving between Earth and the sun, leaving only the edges of the sun visible.
The second, more anticipated event will be a total solar eclipse that will happen on April 8. The moon will once again move between Earth and the sun, but this time it will block out the sun for more than four minutes for those at the center of the “path of totality” — the path traced on Earth’s surface by the moon’s shadow.
And San Antonio won’t be left out. For the 2024 total eclipse, neighborhoods in the north and west parts of the city will be in the path of totality for about 2½ minutes, so residents won’t have to flock to the Hill Country to experience the event.
“For our area to be the ground zero for these eclipses is really awesome,” said Ja’Nise Solitaire, Visit San Antonio’s communications manager. “It will bring a lot of people to San Antonio who will explore what else the city has to offer. We expect lots of visitors for it, and we’re ready.”
Years of prep work
In Fredericksburg, a popular tourism destination located about an hour north of San Antonio and known for its numerous wineries, businesses have been planning for the eclipses for more than two years. Fredericksburg is located almost exactly in the middle of the path of totality for the 2024 eclipse.
The Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the City of Fredericksburg, launched an eclipse committee in 2021, said Penny McBride, the chamber’s president and CEO, which has been working with the community of roughly 11,000 to prepare for tens of thousands of visitors for the 2024 event.
“We believe all our hospitality businesses will experience large volumes that day,” McBride told the San Antonio Report. “Some businesses are planning to be closed just because they may only have limited access due to larger crowds.”
The task force includes representatives from the City of Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, local emergency services, relevant businesses and several residents, McBride said. The chamber also created a website for interested residents and visitors to check out, which includes information about both eclipses, where residents and visitors can view the eclipses, and business preparedness tips.
Fredericksburg tourism businesses also will be hosting “eclipse festivals,” for the two events complete with camping, hot air balloon rides, specialty dinners, wine tours and more.
McBride said the October eclipse was expected to bring visitors, but in fewer numbers than the April event.
Likewise, 25 miles southwest of Fredericksburg, Kerrville and its visitor’s bureau also have been preparing for the 2024 event for years, said Leslie Jones, the public relations communications manager for the Kerrville Convention and Visitors Bureau. Kerrville also lies almost exactly in the middle of the path of totality. The Hill Country Alliance is predicting as many as 150,000 viewers will come to the Hill Country for the 2024 eclipse, Jones said.
The City of Kerrville is planning an official eclipse festival in Louise Hays Park, Jones said, a free event that will have scientific speakers, live music and children’s programming, according to Kerrville’s website.
“The City of Kerrville has an eclipse planning committee, and the city has been working hard — and so has emergency services — to make sure everything is in place for the influx of people we’re expecting,” she said. “We’re going to expand for a few days more than we ever have had to before.”
Other Texas cities that are in the path of totality include Castroville, Bandera, Uvalde, Waco, Killeen, Round Rock, Plano and Tyler. Parts of Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth also will experience totality.
Eclipse economies
In San Antonio, both UTSA and the Scobee Education Center and Planetarium located at San Antonio College will lead viewing experiences for both the annular and total solar eclipses, while local businesses such as Alamo Beer, and the Witte Museum and DoSeum are planning watch parties.
Visit San Antonio, the city’s visitor’s bureau, has put together a website where residents and visitors can learn more about the eclipses and choose where to view them, Solitaire said.
In the past, cities situated under an eclipse experience what’s called “eclipse economies,” where hundreds of thousands of dollars in tourism have come in from visitors interested in the stars, she said.
Indeed, on Airbnb and Expedia, it appears finding lodging for the April event is already becoming difficult. As of mid-July, the least expensive Airbnb option available in Fredericksburg for April 7-8 was more than $2,000.
For the 2017 total solar eclipse, the last visible in the United States, hotels in the path of totality reported a 244% increase in revenue per available room on the night before the eclipse, data intelligence business Smith Travel Research reported. In the three days leading up to the eclipse, hotels in the path of totality reported an 87% increase in revenue per available room.
“There have been between 11,000 and 260,000 visitors for an eclipse event at other destinations,” Solitaire said. “In San Antonio we already have some hotels booking up fast for the [2024] eclipse.”
