Discover Odessa reports 34 events, highlights hotel occupancy and retail spending uptick

Discover Odessa delivered its quarterly visitor and economic-impact report to the Odessa City Council, covering January through March and summarizing events, hotel nights and spending.

The presentation highlighted 34 events supported this quarter and an increase in hotel occupancy and retail spending compared with the immediate prior quarter. "We're presenting quarter 2, January, February, and March," said Laura, the Discover Odessa presenter. The organization used data from the platform Zartico and split impacts into meetings, special events and sporting events.

The nut graf: the report is meant to show short-term visitor trends and to support the city’s event recruitment and marketing work. Council members asked for additional comparison data to show whether current figures are up or down from the last two or three years.

In the body of the presentation, Laura walked the council through a visitor snapshot and the groups assisted by Discover Odessa. She said sports and meetings were more balanced this quarter than is typical, and noted the Sandhills rodeo in January brought a large influx of visitors. When Councilman Mitchell asked whether the January increase was because of the rodeo, Laura replied, "Yes. The Sandhills rodeo definitely brings a huge influx of visitors to our city."

The report included upcoming group bookings through October 2027 and highlighted that Discover Odessa recently won the American Junior Golf Association tournament for July and that Parks and Ratliff Ranch helped secure the event. Discover Odessa also described its digital-marketing footprint and said the events calendar is the top visited page on the city website.

Discover Odessa staff discussed promotional activities including a First Friday downtown booth for National Travel and Tourism Week and a staycation giveaway with hotel nights at the Marriott and local gift cards. Ashley Flores, the marketing communications specialist named in the presentation, was credited with developing the organization’s photo library and digital advertising assets.

The report closed with a sports-event recruitment update. Laura reported the sports-event recruitment fund had $202,534 remaining; council discussion noted the fund began the prior year at $250,000. "That is my report," Laura said when she finished, and the council opened the floor for questions.

Ending: Councilmembers asked Discover Odessa to add multi-year (two- to three-year) comparison figures to future reports to show trends and whether the city is gaining or losing market share. Discover Odessa staff agreed to include those comparisons on request.