OKLAHOMA BRIEFS Survey: State hotel occupancy rates rise
Economic impact of tribe accelerates
TUSKAHOMA — Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton reported Monday that the tribe’s economic impact on the state of Oklahoma totals more than $1.8 billion.
“That’s a $1.8 billion with a ‘B,’ impact made on the State of Oklahoma,” Batton said. “Total tribal assets are $2.4 billion.”
The Fiscal Year 2016 figure, the most recent available, was featured at Chief Batton’s 2018 State of the Nation address at the Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival. “The economic impact made by the Choctaw Nation is accelerating opportunities for growth and prosperity for the tribe and the State of Oklahoma,”
Batton said. “What that translates to,” he said, “are 8,358 direct jobs supported in 2016 (the 2018 figure has jumped to 10,346 employees) and 12,161 total jobs supported, making direct income payments $518 million.”
About 58 percent of the total came from the tribe’s business operations, with 24 percent from federal and state grants, 12 percent from Medicare and third-party insurance, 3 percent from general government revenue; and 2 percent from housing, he said. Two-thirds of the revenue goes to services to tribal members, 21 percent to capital projects, and 12 percent to the permanent fund.
Banking school students earn honors
Jaime Ortiz, with Arvest Bank in Del City, and Manny Lanzner, with NBC Oklahoma
bank in Oklahoma City, have been named Honors Graduate and Distinguished Graduate, respectively, of the 2018 Oklahoma Bankers Association Intermediate Banking School.
Ortiz and Lanzner were selected for their Intermediate School honors based on their outstanding work on the school’s exam and contributions and participation in class. They were chosen by the school’s regents, staff, faculty and students. Ortiz and Lanzner were among 24 students who attended the school over two sessions on Feb. 5-9 and June 4-8, both at the OBA Harris Event Center.
A survey indicates that hotel occupancy in Oklahoma has risen by 4.7 percent over the past year. The survey by
Nashville, Tennessee-based STR found that occupancy as of July was up 9.5 percent outside the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas. Occupancy at hotels in Oklahoma City and Tulsa increased by 1.6 percent.
The Journal Record reports that northwest Oklahoma City saw a huge uptick in occupancy, rate and revenue per available room. But the survey recorded a decline in the city’s central business district, where occupancy dropped almost 3 percent, and the average daily rate went down 2.1 percent.
Revenue was down nearly 5 percent. The statewide data included information from 922 hotels which represented 72,000 rooms. The figures are only 71 percent of the entire Oklahoma hotel market.