Tulsa Regional Tourism losing out on at least $30M due to TID delay

TULSA, Okla. — Officials representing the Tulsa Regional Tourism board of directors and community partners announced today the ongoing economic impact due to delayed funding from the established Tourism Improvement District (TID).

A primary example of the negative financial impact is the loss of Tulsa’s opportunity to host the Bassmaster Classic in 2021, which would attract 11,000 visitors and provide a $30 million economic impact to tourism.

Additional major meeting and sporting events being pursued by Tulsa Regional Tourism are also at risk. The Tulsa City Council established the TID in November 2018, which allows larger hotels in Tulsa to assess a 3% fee for each room night.

By law, the collection of these fees must be exclusively used for marketing activities which recruit major events to Tulsa. The delay in funding from Tulsa’s TID is due to a lawsuit filed a year ago in Tulsa County. “In this case, time is money.

The delay in available funding from the TID has cost Tulsa an estimated $50,000 each day in lost opportunity,” said Mike Mears, CEO of Magellan Midstream Partners and chair of the Tulsa Regional Tourism Board of Directors.

“After nearly a year, we have lost our chance to bring the Bassmaster Classic back to Tulsa. The $30 million economic impact could have been revenue for our City, for our hotels and restaurants, and for our event sponsors. This one example has set Tulsa back tremendously.”

Authorized by an Oklahoma State Statute in 2016, a TID provides cities across the state with the ability to utilize visitor dollars to expand its tourism opportunities.

Approximately 180 cities in the United States have similar tourism districts providing the funds necessary to compete for events.

Following the establishment of Tulsa’s TID, the City of Norman announced it is creating a TID to fund sports event recruitment.

Ray Hoyt, president of Tulsa Regional Tourism, was counting on the TID funding to pursue future events for Tulsa.

“The delayed TID funding is having a negative multiplier effect across all of the tourism industry. Our prospective event pipeline is full and all available budget is already allocated to other events,” Hoyt said. “Tulsa lost the Bassmaster bid because the funding we needed to host the event was budgeted from the TID allocation.”

The TID investment was also earmarked for Tulsa’s successful recruitment of the three-year IRONMAN® contract which is expected to bring $11.5 million and 10,000 visitors each year in 2020, 2021 and 2022.