Visit OKC releases fiscal year 2024 annual report

Visit OKC serves as the official destination marketing organization for the Greater Oklahoma City region. Dedicated to showcasing Oklahoma City as a premier visitor destination, Visit OKC focuses on enhancing the city’s name and elevating its image on a national scale. Visit OKC plays a critical role in sales and marketing efforts that position Oklahoma City as an exceptional choice for convention, sports and leisure travelers.

With numerous accolades already earned and promising advancements ahead, Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) has proven to be a dynamic year for tourism in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City’s FY24 accomplishments are detailed in Visit OKC’s Annual Report, which highlights growth, progress and success in the region.

Visit OKC’s digital marketing channels experienced significant follower growth across its social media platforms, with Instagram rising 42%, Facebook growing 3.1%, Tik Tok boosting 120% and LinkedIn advancing 34.8% year-over-year. Collectively, these social media platforms generated 47 million total social impressions. Visit OKC also utilized influencers and content creators to enhance brand awareness, which resulted in an above average 5.18% engagement rate.

Visit OKC’s public relations team also saw much success by securing feature stories in national publications such as Wanderlust, Southern Living, Forbes, Travel + Leisure, USA Today, Atlas Obscura and Cowboys & Indians. Additionally, Oklahoma City was featured as a travel destination in 206 published articles.

The success in convention sales significantly strengthened demand for Oklahoma City. Noteworthy accomplishments include the design, development and execution of an innovative tradeshow booth used at PCMA Convening Leaders in January. The team secured a bid for the largest convention in Oklahoma City’s history, the American Farm Bureau Federation, which will attract over 8,000 attendees. The team also successfully contracted one of the nation’s largest retail tradeshows, Nation’s Best Sports. More than 74% of conventions hosted in Oklahoma City either increased or maintained attendance, while perceptions of Oklahoma City among meeting planners improved substantially by 20%, rising from 70% to 90% following their events.

The sports sector also experienced significant achievements. OKC Sports successfully secured multiple high-profile gymnastics events, reinforcing its status as a national authority in the sport. These events include the nationally televised Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad at the Paycom Center in January 2025, the USA Gymnastics Development Program National Championships at OKCCC in May 2026 and additional USA Gymnastics Regional Championships in Oklahoma City in collaboration with Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy.

In the equine sector, Oklahoma City upholds its reputation as the Horse Show Capital of the World. In FY24, the city hosted 13 premier equine events and two distinguished livestock events. Overall, the sports and equine divisions coordinated 69 high-profile events.

Additionally, Visit OKC supported Oklahoma City as the host site for several marquee events, including the OKC Memorial Marathon, U.S. Olympic Trials for Canoe Slalom & Kayak Cross, Better Barrel Races, Festival of the Arts and the OKC Thunder’s return to the NBA Playoffs. Highlights included a post-pandemic record of over 22,000 participants at the OKC Memorial Marathon; a new attendance record at the Big 12 Softball Championships; three nights of sold-out games of the Savannah Bananas at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark; and a record average TV viewership of 2 million for the NCAA Women’s College World Series.

Overall visitation and economic impact data for Oklahoma City also saw increases from the previous year (reports based on 2022 and 2023 data). In 2023, OKC welcomed a record 24.1 million visitors who spent $2.7 billion, with a total economic impact of $4.5 billion. There was also a surge in visitor-supported employment, rising from 24,948 jobs in 2022 to 34,897 jobs in 2023.

The Visit OKC Annual Report highlights the remarkable progress, growth and advancement that Oklahoma City has achieved over the past year. The report showcases not only the developments that have already taken place but also hints at the prospects on the horizon. Oklahoma City is on an upward trajectory and positioned for greater achievements in the future.