The following is a transcript of a recent interview featured on the Frommer’s Travel Show Podcast. The guest was Alison Brooks, assistant director for tourism with Visit Sugar Land. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pauline Frommer: I recently had my annual physical, and as always happens, my doctor and I started chatting about travel, specifically his travels. He went to a very obscure corner of Scandinavia in the dead of winter, and he visited it [at that time] to escape the crowds. Because even though this is a place that nobody went to a decade ago, it now has a problem with traffic jams.
So it's more important than ever to talk about what we sometimes call the secondary cities, the places that are right next to the top attractions that people may not think of going to, but really should because they're not yet overtouristed, they're still affordable, and they often offer really exciting, interesting attractions, restaurants, and facilities for visitors that you would get in the main attractions, but often with less competition.
Alison Brooks is the assistant director for tourism with Visit Sugar Land. With the World Cup on the horizon, Sugar Land is going to get a little bit of the spotlight. So tell us where Sugar Land is and what is the tie with the World Cup.
Alison Brooks: We are a suburb located right outside of Houston, [but we are also] a city that has a lot to offer without necessarily the complexity of going into Houston’s city center or downtown area. We have a lot of great things to do that you would typically find in bigger cities. So we're really excited for our visitors to come experience Sugar Land during the World Cup.
Frommer: But there won't be any World Cup matches in Sugar Land itself, right? So what is the tie-in?
Brooks: That's correct. But there are seven really big matches happening in Houston. Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands are just some of the countries that are playing in Houston. So those are going to be some really great games.
And we are implementing some watch parties in Sugar Land Town Square Plaza, which is the heartbeat of the downtown Sugar Land area. It’s where all of our visitors naturally flock to anyway. So [we] will be [showing] matches over a couple of the weekends when matches aren’t taking place in Houston. Those [live streams] are meant to complement those Houston matches and kind of give visitors things to do—to travel and explore outside of Houston.
Frommer: I've seen photos of the town square. It's very attractive with lovely sculptures and a big, wide open space. It's a classic town square.
So what you're hoping for is people will go into Houston for the matches that are happening there and then come to this town square to see the matches happening in other parts of the country. Is that how it works?
Brooks: That's right. So we're really trying to complement what's happening in Houston, not necessarily compete with it.
Frommer: And I would think, and tell me if I'm wrong, that some of the people who are in the Houston area for the World Cup won't be staying at the hotels in Houston. They may be staying in Sugar Land. Are you seeing a spillover in terms of visitation for people going to those matches?
Brooks: Yes, absolutely. That's definitely what we expect to happen. One of the points that we like to cite is that in the last World Cup, there was a match where 40,000 Peruvians actually traveled to Russia. And out of those 40,000, I believe it was only 14,000 had match tickets. So that's not even half.
That just kind of goes to show that this is really a cultural event for people, and a lot of people are going to come to the city who aren't even going to [attend] matches. They're really just looking to be part of the excitement and to explore the destinations where the matches are going to be at.
Frommer: And it seems very appropriate to have the world come to Sugar Land because you have probably the most diverse population in Texas. Sugar Land grew I think it was 40% between the 2010 census and 2021. So it's a booming city. And a lot of [the new] people, I was reading, I think it's 38% were born in other countries, mostly from different parts of Asia. It was 10% Indian, 10% Chinese, a lot of people from Vietnam, a lot of people from Pakistan.
You don't expect to be going to the heart of Texas and really getting this type of fully global community.
Brooks: I think that's really one thing about Texas that's really unexpected. Modern Texas is very international, especially in the Houston/Sugar Land region. It really is a melting pot. We have really good schools, really good things to do in the city, [which is why] people want to live in the area.
And when people migrate to a certain area, they want to see the city and the food and the dining reflective of their culture. So [we now have a very] diverse food scene.
Frommer: So let's talk a little bit about that. If somebody goes out to eat, what kind of food will they find? Will they find authentic restaurants or [does the food] taste more like Americanized versions? Are restaurateurs really doing the full punch of spices and sourness and the different flavors that you expect if you were to go to India itself or China or Vietnam?
Brooks: We have really authentic options. We actually have Texas's first halal deli, which is a really great family story—it was started by a gentleman and his father. [We also have] Seafood City, which is a huge Filipino market with fresh fish and a bakery with specialized pastries. You just walk in there and it's honestly like you're transported to another country—the smells of the grilled meats, and you see all of the families there. It's a food hall experience with lots of little restaurants in there. [It's] something that people really don't expect when they’re thinking of Texas. They think of steak and barbecue and things like that.
Frommer: Do you have barbecue, though? I have to ask.
Brooks: Of course we have the traditional Tex-Mex and barbecue and things that Texas is kind of known for. But you can also try food here you’ve never tried before. That happened to me personally. I love Thai food now but I'd never had Thai food before I started working in the city.
Frommer: So you have this diverse population, which is terrific. I think probably a lot of them were brought in by the energy industry because that's what the Houston area is known for. And you have a lot of families, so it's a great place to take kids. What are some of the attractions that are best for families in Sugar Land?
Brooks: Honestly, Sugar Land is a really family-friendly destination. We have two satellite locations here of Houston museums. The Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land has really cool hands-on experiences for kids. If you have a dinosaur lover, they have a dig pit, which is basically a giant sandbox where you can dig for fossils and dinosaur bones. It's great for an afternoon off, when you're trying to beat the heat, especially in summer. They have rotating exhibits year-round.
Our other museum is really great too: Fort Bend Children's Discovery Center. They’re leaning into a lot of international programming for the World Cup. They're going to have soccer-themed exhibits where you can test your agility and do different things along those lines. And they're going to have international learning opportunities for the kids.
Have you ever heard of Space Cowboys?
Frommer: Is it a rock band?
Brooks: It kind of sounds like a rock band, but the Space Cowboys are our minor league baseball team. They play at Constellation Field, and that is also just a really great family-friendly experience. Over the World Cup they're actually going to be playing a home game, which is really exciting because it coincides with the kickoff of the World Cup.
Frommer: I wonder how many of the people who have come to the Houston area for soccer have experienced a baseball game before. I think that could be very, very popular.
Brooks: Their final game is actually going to be on the Fourth of July this year. It’ll be called "Red, White and Boom" for the fireworks celebrating America's 250th birthday.
Frommer: Do you have a music scene?
Brooks: We have Smart Financial Centre, which is essentially our entertainment venue in Sugar Land. It’s another area where people are surprised because they really have a variety of programming. They have everything from Latino concerts, K-pop, country music, and some really, really big names like Mariah Carey, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart. They are really leaning into that same variety of shows during World Cup.
The venue has state-of-the-art sound quality and it's a great, intimate experience. There's not a bad seat in the house. It feels like you're close even though it's a large stadium.
Frommer: If people want to get out into nature, what do they do? Is that an option, or does it just get too damn hot in summer?
Brooks: You know, it is hot, but we have so many great outdoor opportunities. We have over 27 parks in the city. Some of them are bigger parks than others, but we have some really great things to do like kayaking. We have self-serve kiosks for kayaking now.
Frommer: You use your credit card and rent a kayak?
Brooks: Yes, basically. You can do that at Sugar Land Memorial Park. At the same park, there's a large playground, there's a butterfly garden. It’s very nice.
A lot of our parks are really great for bird-watching, which people don't expect. There’s also fishing in the middle of the city at Cullinan Park.
And one of the other things to do is called Go Ape. It’s a treetop adventure course where you can go zip-lining over the Brazos River, which is a cool experience. They have options for beginners, so don't let that scare you. My 7-year-old went with my husband.
They have advanced courses, too, so it's good for everybody. It’s kind of like a ninja course that’s connected in the trees by boards and ropes, and you have to get across to the other side, and then you can zip line in different areas.
Frommer: I think probably a lot of [people] are thinking, Why is this city named Sugar Land?
Brooks: Our city's name comes from Imperial Sugar, from the sugar factory. The Char House is how we refer to it, in our Imperial District. The [former refinery] is actually vacant, but it's still there. It’s a huge redevelopment project right now for the city. They're trying to restore that area, and we're working with a developer to come in and reimagine it.
But that's our namesake. The town was built around this sugar factory. It was a company town, and a lot of the houses and the businesses were built by the workers.
Frommer: Is there any sugar refining still going on in the city, or is that in the past?
Brooks: There currently is not. However, we’re trying to preserve a lot of that history.
Frommer: Do you have any final thoughts?
Brooks: We are talking about international visitors during World Cup, but I think this is a really great opportunity for us to get all kinds of new visitors to Sugar Land. A lot of people come to Sugar Land for a Space Cowboys game or they come for a show at Smart Financial Centre, but then they leave and they don't get to experience the rest of the city.
We really want to use this as an opportunity to get people into the city and show them what else we have to offer, because there really is just so much here. You can spend a day, you can spend a weekend, you can even probably spend a whole week in the city and get to experience a lot of things.