OTRD Industry Update
March 23, 2026
The OTRD Industry Update newsletter is designed to keep Oklahoma Tourism Industry partners & stakeholders informed about what is happening at the state level. This monthly newsletter will feature news, statistics, and resources to assist your organization.
This inaugural edition includes
- Recent State visitation data
- Spring Campaign update
- Fall 2025 marketing recap & reporting
- Statewide Tourism Economic Impact Report update
- OTRD Photo Collections for download
- Discover Oklahoma update
Recent State Visitation
OTRD uses Datafy to assist with our marketing strategy, track visitation, and measure the effectiveness of OTRD’s ad campaigns. Below you will find recent visitation statistics courtesy of Datafy. January is the most recent month with “complete” figures.
NOTE: Datafy considers a “visitor” someone traveling out-of-state at least 50 miles, and someone traveling in-state at least 75 miles. Visitors who do not exit major highways are considered pass-through traffic and are excluded from the data.
Datafy has reported that a dip in visitation is a consistent trend they’ve seen across all destinations — cities and states. CY 2025 softened visitation in all destinations, and it’s a trend Datafy says is not expected to recover in 2026. The provided reasons for this are an unstable economy, a few rounds of government shutdowns, a decline in international travel, and the new war economy.
What’s next: The busiest time of the year is here. The next three months bring us all an opportunity to capitalize on peak travel season. OTRD’s spring campaign runs through the end of June and the tactics are detailed later in this newsletter.
“Bold Belongs Here” Spring Campaign
OTRD’s “Bold Belongs Here” spring campaign launched February 23 and will run through June 30. Hopefully you have seen the bright, colorful ads on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Google, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Prime Video, and Netflix.
HERE IS A LINK to a playlist featuring all the ads that will run during the campaign.
The Paid Media breakdown for this campaign is 70 percent out-of-state, and 30 percent in-state. Ads have ran/will run in the following markets:
In-State
- OKC
- Tulsa
- Sherman-Ada
- Wichita Falls-Lawton
Out-of-State
- DFW
- Ft. Smith-Fayetteville
- Amarillo
- Wichita-Hutchinson
- Joplin
- Little Rock
- Springfield, MO
- Topeka
The goals of the spring campaign are to increase visitation to all 77 counties statewide, increase travel spending, increase state and local tax revenue, increase online bookings at Oklahoma State Parks, and increase traffic to TravelOK.com.
Achieving these goals benefits the entire state. An increase in travel spending statewide leads to a growth in direct travel-generated earnings for businesses. This may also lead to job creation inside and outside of the tourism industry. From the state level, increased visitor spending also leads to more state & local tax revenue generated by dollars coming from outside Oklahoma.
An increase in bookings at Oklahoma State Parks also leads to more state & local tax revenue generated, while more traffic to TravelOK.com increases the likelihood that a potential visitor will travel to Oklahoma.
The campaign’s performance will be measured by metrics provided by Datafy, Google Analytics, Meta, and CM360 (Google’s ad serving and tracking tool).
OTRD PR/Earned Media February 2026
Oklahoma’s share of voice (SOV) increased by 113% month-over-month. Share of Voice measures how often Oklahoma is mentioned in media compared to competing destination marketing organizations.
Tourism Press Mentions:
- OKLAHOMA – 56 articles, 39 unique
- TEXAS – 265 articles, 147 unique
- KANSAS – 0 articles
- ARKANSAS – 46 articles, 44 unique
- MISSOURI – 75 articles, 17 unique
Press Secured (Earned Coverage)
13 total pieces were secured by OTRD in February. With 3 pieces secured in January, OTRD is up to 16 pieces secured for Q1. We have already surpassed our goal of 8+ pieces secured per quarter.
TravelOK Social Media Snapshot
We have seen an enormous lift on our TravelOK social media channels since the beginning of the Spring Campaign. The following shows social media metrics for Facebook and Instagram in the 24 days before campaign launch, compared to the first 24 days of the campaign.
OTRD FY26 Fall Marketing Recap
OTRD’s Fall 2025 marketing included several burst campaigns showcasing Fall destinations, fishing in Oklahoma, Holiday events, Native culture, State Parks, and overall state branding. Paid media strategy was mostly digital with always-on Google and Bing SEM, Meta video and carousel ads, and Google Performance Max ads for each burst campaign.
From 9/15 to 10/12 broadcast commercials aired in OKC, Tulsa, Sherman-Ada, and Wichita Falls-Lawton using content from the four episodes of “ROUTES” produced by OTRD. The ads showcased unique chefs/food in Oklahoma, the music scene in Tulsa, the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, and Oklahoma’s stretch of Route 66. The ads directed viewers to watch the full episodes at DiscoverOklahomatv.com.
The figure above displays TravelOK owned media impact. These numbers show the value of the TravelOK brand and provide evidence that TravelOK.com and TravelOK social media channels influence travel to Oklahoma.
Statewide Tourism Annual Economic Impact Report
OTRD is awaiting a report from Dean Runyan Associates detailing the overall annual economic impact of tourism in Oklahoma. OTRD anticipates preliminary report data to be available by the first week of May.
The report will deliver the following spanning from 2016-2025:
- Direct visitor spending
- Tourism jobs supported by visitor spending
- Total earnings supported by visitor spending
- State tax generated by visitor spending
- Total economic impact of tourism in Oklahoma
- Detailed visitor volume analysis
- Visitor air traffic
- Secondary impacts
- Legislative District analysis
The final report will include detailed economic impact data for all 77 counties. Once that data is ready, it will be made available to all partners/stakeholders.
OTRD Photo Collections for Download
We have developed three photo collections that include several images available for immediate download.
If you cannot find the image you’re looking for, or would like to request an image from a different category, please email Photos@travelok.com.
Discover Oklahoma Stories
The Discover Oklahoma brand is returning soon with a web-only series designed to continue the spirit of Discover Oklahoma, but delivered in a format that makes it easier to watch and share.
Discover Oklahoma Stories will premiere on the Discover Oklahoma YouTube channel, and eventually on DiscoverOklahomatv.com.
WATCH a teaser trailer for Discover Oklahoma Stories.
The series is scheduled to debut in April.
TravelOK.com Resources
To submit an event to be listed on TravelOK.com, please CLICK HERE.
To submit a Route 66 Centennial event to be listed on TravelOK.com, please CLICK HERE.
View the TravelOK.com upcoming events page HERE.