City councilors approved a 3 percent tax on room stays at Tulsa’s largest hotels.
The assessment program is known as a Tourism Improvement District, and is applicable only to hotels of 110 rooms or more. Hotels which have fewer than 110 rooms can opt into the assessment district.
The $2.4 million a year that the TID is expected to generate will be used for marketing the city and participating hotels.
Ray Hoyt, the president of VisitTulsa Regional Tourism, led the effort to get the assessment district implemented.
To quote Hoyt, “We are super positive. It’s going to just provide opportunities for the city and this hotel class to be marketed at a much higher level and help improve tourism and all the benefits the city gets from that.”
Nine million people visited Tulsa in 2017 to attend events; however, only three million stayed overnight in hotels.
The TID funding will be used to promote the city’s many tourist attractions and that would help more people to stay longer, Hoyt said.
Tags: Tulsa’s largest hotels
