According to Craig, the sales tax derived from tourism in 2023 was $85.4 million and Economist Russell Evans ranked tourism related sales in second place for future job growth with only the health care sector showing greater promise.
Among contributors to future hospitality revenue will be the recently opened OKANA Resort & Indoor Waterpark. The $400 million Chickasaw Nation’s facility is anticipated to pull in visitors from within the radius of a 3-hour drive and employ as many as 800 people.
Banner printing services are frequently used to promote the opening of a new venue.
In August 2024 city residents voted to increase the hotel tax to 9.25% from 5.5%. The city’s hotel tax revenue, as reported by City Manager Craig Freeman, was 26% higher for the last quarter of 2024 as a result of that 3.75% rate increase that had become effective October 1.
Freeman explained:
“If you normalize that growth over that quarter, it’s still almost 3% growth in hotel tax at the same time that we’re seeing a decline in our sales tax. So we’re really having a lot of good activity there.”
A comparison between the new and the lower hotel tax rates will continue till the end of the fiscal year on June 30.