OKC SET TO VOTE ON HOTEL TAX TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD
The Chamber is supporting an effort to increase the City’s hotel tax to provide more funds for the promotion of Oklahoma City as a visitor destination. The Oklahoma City Council set the vote for August 27. “The improvements made in this community over the past 30 years have created a dynamic destination for meetings and tourism,” said Christy Gillenwater, president & CEO of the Chamber. “Unfortunately, the money available to really share that story with the world has not grown, and that hampers our ability to tell the story and sell what we have to offer.” The tax is only charged to people who stay overnight in a hotel or rent a home-sharing property in the City of Oklahoma City. The current tax is 5.5%, and the increase would take the total tax to 9.25%. The increase would bring in an additional $11.6 million annually, with 75% of the increase going toward direct funding to promote and/or foster convention and tourism development. The remainder of the increase would go toward event sponsorship(13.3%), a vital tool for attracting events, OKC Fairgrounds improvements (6.7%) and OKC Convention Center improvements (5%). “The amount provided for promotional purposes hasn’t been increased since the tax was instituted in 1972,” explained Zac Craig, president of Visit OKC.
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