Quarterly tourism report: Norman sees visitor spikes on football weekends; staff outline data limits, lodging impacts

City staff presented a quarterly review of special-event attendance and visitor trends at the March 6 meeting of the City Council Business and Community Affairs Committee, showing large spikes in town-level visits tied to University of Oklahoma football games and steady year-over-year increases in lodging metrics.

The presentation drew on two commercial data sources: Placer.ai for city-level cell‑phone movement and Zartico for tourism and spend metrics. Staff said the city moved this report from monthly to quarterly to allow more complete financial and event-spending compilation. "We decided to do it quarterly," a staff presenter said, "so you'll see four of these a year."

Why it matters: committee members pressed staff for detail because football weekends and major festivals are an important economic driver for Norman restaurants, retail and lodging. Staff said those spikes appear concentrated at Gaylord Family — the football stadium — and do not consistently translate into large, visible spikes in nearby towns.

Key findings - Overall city footprint: The presentation showed monthly visitor counts across the city footprint that averaged roughly 2.4 million in the periods reviewed and peaked higher on event months, according to Placer.ai figures cited by staff. - Football weekends: Game‑day footprints around the stadium produced the largest, repeatable spikes. Staff said Tulane (a parents weekend) produced the highest single-game visit count during the season, followed by Tennessee and Alabama weekends; weather and opponent quality affected individual game figures. - Visitor spending and demographics (Zartico, Oct.–Dec. quarter cited): 10% of total local spend during the quarter came from visitors; restaurant spend from visitors rose to about 12% of restaurant revenue, retail about 10%, and attraction spend about 13%. Average transaction amounts reported: about $76 at restaurants, $120 at retail, and $34 at attractions. Demographics: 54% of visitors were aged 25–54; roughly 43% had household incomes over $100,000 and 43% had children in the household. Nearly 61% of visitors came from out of state, with Dallas, Tulsa and Oklahoma City among the top origin markets. - Lodging: Quarter‑to‑quarter comparisons showed occupancy up about 10% and average daily rate up about 5% year over year for the period cited. Short‑term vacation rentals (Airbnb/VRBO) had higher stay values and mixed occupancy changes compared with hotels.

Data sources and limits Staff repeatedly described technical limits and analysis choices. The city used Placer.ai to capture visits within drawn footprints; Zartico provided tourism spend and origin-market attribution. "I can pull the data for any time period at any time," staff member Sarah said, but she also cautioned that Placer.ai and Zartico have different geographic definitions and cannot fully trace an individual device's entire daylong journey. Sarah said Placer.ai shows the immediate before-and-after movement around a footprint but does not always reveal a visitor's full itinerary across a metro area.

Council members asked whether Norman is losing overnight stays to Oklahoma City on big game weekends. Staff said Oklahoma City data are available only through agreements or partner analysis and are complicated by concurrent events and conventions in that larger market. The city plans to pursue partnerships — including with Visit OKC and Zartico partners — to try to measure hotel leakage and aggregate hotel booking behavior on key game dates.

Council discussion and next steps Committee members requested follow-up data: game‑by‑game hotel and origin analysis (staff said final Alabama figures remained to be processed) and targeted hot‑spot comparisons for nearby markets. Staff said they will provide season‑by‑season comparisons and pursue partner data to attempt to quantify how many visitors stayed outside Norman on peak days. Dan (finance staff) and Sarah (visitor-data staff) will finalize outstanding game analyses and provide the additional hotel-origin figures the committee requested.

Ending Staff characterized the quarter as showing that Norman's retail and restaurant offer drive visitation, with football and tournaments contributing distinct, repeatable spikes. Committee members asked staff to return with comparative hotel and origin data to better measure whether the city should target additional hotel capacity or other investments.