SAN ANTONIO (BP)–The Alamo and other historic and cultural sites around San Antonio will be featured on tours offered to messengers and their families in conjunction with the June 12-13 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The tours, by Daisy Tours of San Antonio, will be offered Sunday, June 10, and Wednesday, June 13, from 2-5 p.m.
In addition to the Alamo, featured sites will include Mission San Jose and other 18th-century missions in San Antonio; the San Fernando Cathedral; the 65,000-seat Alamodome; the 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas; and the El Mercado Mexican market.
Three different tours, each with its own theme, are available: “Hello San Antonio,” “Viva San Antonio” and “Missions of San Antonio.”
Further tour information and registration information can be accessed at www.sbc.net by clicking on the SBC annual meeting link in the center of the page and then “San Antonio Attractions,” which links to the tours and various other points of interest in the San Antonio area. Daisy Tours also can be reached by phone at 1-800-285-8601 or 210-225-8600.
“Planning for the SBC annual meeting,” convention manager John R. (Jack) Wilkerson noted, “has been deliberate in our efforts to include activities for the entire family, in addition to new efforts to facilitate attendees with special needs.”
Wilkerson, vice president for business and finance with the SBC Executive Committee, recapped various travel options to San Antonio for the SBC annual meeting in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center; the June 9 Crossover evangelistic outreach; and various pre-SBC meetings such as the Pastors’ Conference and Woman’s Missionary Union missions celebration.
San Antonio is served by most major air carriers and thus air travel should be relatively easy, Wilkerson said.
For those planning to drive, he noted that downtown parking may be limited, thus pushing parking rates for most hotels to $10-$20 per day and public parking to $6-$10. Most hotels in the airport area offer free parking to guests of the hotel, he added.
Shuttles will be available to and from most San Antonio hotels for the SBC sessions and the Sunday-Monday Pastors’ Conference in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the Woman’s Mission Union meeting in the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel.
Wilkerson noted that the Marriott Rivercenter, Marriott Riverwalk, Hilton Palacio del Rio and the LaQuinta Inn & Suites Convention Center will not be shuttled as they are located adjacent to the convention center.
Hotel shuttle tickets will be available at the convention center information desk for $10, with children 12 and under riding free when accompanied by parents who purchase tickets.
Childcare (birth-3 years) and children’s conferences (ages 4-12) have been planned for the San Antonio meeting, with registration information available at www.sbc.net, the Southern Baptist Convention’s website.
Online registration for churches sending messengers to the annual meeting opened March 1 and can be accessed at www.sbcannualmeeting.net. Last year, the fourth year for online service, 80.1 percent of the messengers to the annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., registered online, up from 79 percent for the 2005 meeting in Nashville, Tenn. The traditional registration method also is available for those churches that are unable or may not opt to access the online registration. Registration cards are available from state convention offices.
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