Quote:
Originally Posted by MightyYoda
This year might be even worse, but I think it will even out. Big part of the problem was the hotels going crazy over the price gouging, that will level out because people will just not come or stay in San Antonio instead. Also tons of locals stayed away from downtown that weekend because every newspaper basically told them to do so. I went downtown on the train and there were lots of people, but not as bad as SXSW. I think more locals will not avoid F1 weekend this year.
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The dirty little secret there is that COTA was as responsible for that as anyone (as we told y'all well before there were any news stories about it). They're distancing themselves from it now, saying they're concerned about the prices and recommending the hotels lower them.
Prices last year came down dramatically after COTA's room-blocking contracts started expiring, one by one, and the hotels still couldn't sell out. Lots of people did go to SA & elsewhere, & many tour companies have opted out of Austin due to the 2012 fiasco.
Re: locals staying away from downtown...that shouldn't have mattered so much. COTA's own economist said it would be like Montreal, where supposedly 100k people come for the race & another 300K come for the party. Now, that doesn't actually happen in Montreal. I've been to that race & it's great & the crowd is very good, but 300K for the party? That's preposterous. If even a fraction of that had happened here, downtown would have been swamped.
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