ACL Fest Pumps Millions Into Austin Economy

Thousands of visitors will descend upon Austin along with the many locals attending the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park this weekend.

According to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, a quarter of passes for the festival were purchased by buyers outside of the Lone Star State. Attendance is expected to top 65,000 people for each day of the three day festival.

With the throngs of music lovers flowing into Austin comes millions of visitor dollars that boost the local economy. An estimated $51 million will go to area hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, transportation services and other attractions this weekend. The total economic impact could reach nearly $82 million, including temporary employment, sponsorships and the cost of operating the ACL Festival, according to a report commissioned by C3 Presents, the festival's producers.

The 2010 ACL Festival headliners include The Eagles, Phish, The Strokes, M.I.A., Muse and The Flaming Lips. For more information, visit aclfestival.com.

I-35 Tops Gridlock Spots in Austin; N. Lamar Makes List

TxDOT has released their list of the 100 most congested roadways in Texas, and it will be no surprise to Austin drivers that I-35 from Hwy 71 all the way to Hwy 183 made the list. Not only was it the most congested roadway segment here in Austin, but it ranked #4 statewide.

But Austin's second-most congested spot isn't even a highway - it's North Lamar between 45th Street and 6th Street. This stretch of road, coming in at #24 on the statewide list, is the most-congested roadway segment that isn't a highway.

According to notes from the report, TxDOT doesn't have any current plans for improving the congestion on North Lamar. However, there is an idea to reconstruct the roadway to add managed lanes, and a hope that urban rail lines like Cap Metro Rail will help to alleviate some of the gridlock.

To view the entire list and read more on how TxDOT arrived at their conclusions, click here.

ABIA Travel Advisory for Memorial Day Weekend

from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) News

This Memorial Day weekend, air travelers are advised to be at the terminal of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport 90 minutes prior to their departure time.  During peak travel times, airport security lines alone can be as long as 40 minutes.  Usual peak times are typically 5:30-7:30 a.m. and 3:30-5:30 p.m. daily.

There are more flights at Austin’s airport this May compared to May 2009.  This means the potential for more travelers and more passengers at security screening checkpoints.  Passenger traffic is up at Austin-Bergstrom by 6.5% year-to-date compared to 2009.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is ranked as the best in customer service in North America and second among airports its size around the globe by the Airports Council International (ACI) Airport Service Quality Survey.  Austin-Bergstrom has nonstop service to 37 destinations in the U.S. and served 8.2 million passengers in 2009.  A complete listing of all nonstop flight destinations from Austin and the airlines that serve them is available on www.abia.org, click on ‘airlines & flights.’