H O S P I T A L I T Y
The Chamber encourages the growth of the hospitality industry of the region by promoting Oklahoma City as an ideal destination for meetings, events and conventions. OKC GROWING AS TOUR I SM, MEET ING DEST INAT ION While public and private investment continues to flourish in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau, a division of the Chamber, is working to keep visitor and meeting- planner dollars coming into the city as well. That work was fruitful in 2019, with increases seen in hotel room demand, tax collections, room count and revenue. And Oklahoma City isn’t the only place
seeing an uptick in visitors, with the state as a whole seeing a 7.3% increase in direct travel spending in 2018, when compared to 2017 (the most recent available data). In 2018, travelers spent an estimated $9.6 billion in Oklahoma. The trickle-down of that is more jobs in the hospitality sector, with 104,000 jobs created by people spending money on traveling. About 30% of those jobs are in arts, entertainment and recreation, so every organization from the Oklahoma City Thunder to Shakespeare in the Park is helped when people come to see Oklahoma City. In the CVB office, the marketing team spent 2019 working with several Chamber members, such as popular attractions and exciting hotels to host media and travel writers in the city. During fiscal year 2019 – which starts in July 2018 and runs through 2019 – there were 75 travel writers in the city, visiting destinations like the MAPS 3-backed Riversport Rapids and the Scissortail Park grand opening festivities. While it’s been several years since the Chamber campaigned to get MAPS 3 approved, that work has been even more rewarding as the projects have helped the city become an even bigger tourism attraction. Writers have also checked out the city’s creative side at destinations such as Factory Obscura and a variety of incredible eateries. Besides working to showcase the city as a great place for visitors, the CVB staff has been working for the last two years on getting more associations to bring their event to the new MAPS 3 Convention
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2 0 1 9 A N N U A L R E P O R T / G R E A T E R O K L A H O M A C I T Y C H A M B E R
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