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. GROWING THE INDUSTRY
ADDING NEW AMENITIES The positive momentum of the convention and events industry comes on the heels of two groundbreakings that will reshape the Oklahoma City visitor experience. In June, Oklahoma City officials broke ground on the MAPS 3 Convention Center, launching a new era for the MAPS 3 projects and Oklahoma City’s Core-to-Shore redevelopment. This state-of-the-art, $288 million project is expected to be complete in 2020. The building will be located east of Scissortail Park along Robinson Boulevard between SW 4th and SW 7th streets. Like the park and many other important landmarks downtown, it will be served by the MAPS 3 OKC Streetcar. The convention center’s sleek and modern design features sweeping downtown views and materials designed for energy efficiency and resiliency against the weather. A 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall and about 45,000 square feet of meeting spaces will allow multiple events to take place simultaneously. The design also calls for a 30,000-square-foot ballroom, 10,000 square feet of pre-function space and a 4,000-square-foot balcony overlooking the MAPS 3 Scissortail Park. Construction is also underway on Oklahoma City’s Omni Hotel, which will serve as the headquarter hotel for the convention center. The 605-room hotel will be built just north of the new convention center with 50,000 square feet of ballroom and meeting room space to complement the space that will be available in the convention center. Omni Hotels & Resorts also places a high priority on culinary creativity. The hotel will host seven restaurants, including a steakhouse, a coffee shop, a burger bar and a rooftop poolside bar. The hotel project alone is expected to create more than 3,000 jobs and more than $370 million in economic activity, and when finished the hotel is projected to have an annual economic impact of $137 million. The hotel is expected to be complete in 2021.
The Oklahoma City convention and visitor industry continues to see growth and success in the wake of new additions to the Oklahoma City attraction market and through the ongoing work of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), a division of the Chamber. In FY 18, Oklahoma City exceeded $15 million in total hotel room taxes for the first time in the history of the CVB, an increase over FY17 by 7.5 percent. Comparing FY2018 with FY2017, room night demand from a broad mix of business increased by 8.36 percent, hotel revenue increased by 8.63 percent and hotel room supply grew citywide by 4.35 percent. These metrics far outpace those found in Oklahoma City’s competitive set of cities who compete for the same events, and only Austin, Texas, added a larger percentage of rooms to its inventory. The CVB team concluded FY18 with 379,255 definite room nights produced in the convention, sports, group tours and equine markets. The CVB also provided registration and servicing to 263 groups and 43 site visits to potential groups. Oklahoma City also hosted 710 motorcoach group tours during the fiscal year. The year-end economic impact for conventions and sports sales was $113,169,916. The CVB also marketed Oklahoma City as a visitor destination, hosting 47 travel writers and completing 231 media pitches and 23 story assists during the 2018 fiscal year. To support a positive visitor experience, the CVB held eight Certified Tourism Ambassador training events, resulting in 356 active CTA members in the Greater Oklahoma City metro area. Customer satisfaction surveys measuring Oklahoma City as a destination, the CVB as an organization and local industry partners averaged an overall satisfaction rating of 96 percent for the year.
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