Visit Tulsa (safely) – Ray Hoyt, Tulsa Regional Tourism
10/21/20 • 55 min
Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.
In a normal year, we would have recently celebrated Oktoberfest. We also would have enthusiastically taken part in Tulsa Tough weekend, and watched as super humans competed in the Iron Man competition. There would have been sold out shows at concert venues and the hotels would have been at capacity many nights.
According to Tulsa Regional Tourism, more than 9 million people visit Tulsa a year and spend more than a billion dollars in the community in a normal year.
As we all know 2020 has been far from anywhere remotely close to normal.
My guest on this episode is Ray Hoyt, president of Tulsa Regional Tourism. If there’s anybody in Tulsa who has a grasp on the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Tulsa’s tourism business, it’s Ray.
When he came to Tulsa in September 2010, the BOK Center was a couple years old and Oneok Field was in its first year. Guthrie Green was still a parking lot and there were a lot less attractions in the Arts District.
As you’ll hear in this conversation, he wasn’t sold on Tulsa when first asked about the job opportunity, but that obviously changed.
Over the last decade has overseen our city’s tourism efforts as the city has grown to welcome the millions of visitors who aren’t just driving through or connecting flights at Tulsa international Airport.
The recent addition of the Gathering Place and it’s national coverage in USA Today, the New York Times and more helped make Ray’s job a little easier. There’s also the resurgence of Route 66. We talk about both.
Tulsa Tough and its Cry Baby Hill will return. Iron Man is rescheduled for 2021. There are new museums being built and older ones going through renovations. We discuss all those great things still to come.
For Ray, his attention is currently on helping safely reopen Tulsa because the city needs to have hotels, restaurants, museums and stores open for visitors to return. He shares the importance of the Tulsa Safely program as we progress toward the holidays and new year.
In this conversation we recorded on Sept. 28, Ray discusses how tourism is slowly coming back seven months after the pandemic shut down our city.
In a city and state where the budget is largely funded from tax dollars, it’s vitally important our city’s leaders find ways to help our local businesses generate revenues.
As you’ll hear, Ray is passionate about his job and he and his team are working hard to help Tulsa recover and then resume its mission to become a major tourist draw in the middle in the of the U.S. And if there’s one thing we have going for us, it’s that the Mother Road runs right through the middle of town.
I enjoyed chatting with Ray and learning from him. We’re in good hands.
Following my conversation, The Voice digital editor and music writer Kyra Bruce shares the new song “Together” from Tulsa hip-hop artist Benzo. More on him later.
OK, let’s get this going.
This is Tulsa Talks with Ray Hoyt.
Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.
In a normal year, we would have recently celebrated Oktoberfest. We also would have enthusiastically taken part in Tulsa Tough weekend, and watched as super humans competed in the Iron Man competition. There would have been sold out shows at concert venues and the hotels would have been at capacity many nights.
According to Tulsa Regional Tourism, more than 9 million people visit Tulsa a year and spend more than a billion dollars in the community in a normal year.
As we all know 2020 has been far from anywhere remotely close to normal.
My guest on this episode is Ray Hoyt, president of Tulsa Regional Tourism. If there’s anybody in Tulsa who has a grasp on the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Tulsa’s tourism business, it’s Ray.
When he came to Tulsa in September 2010, the BOK Center was a couple years old and Oneok Field was in its first year. Guthrie Green was still a parking lot and there were a lot less attractions in the Arts District.
As you’ll hear in this conversation, he wasn’t sold on Tulsa when first asked about the job opportunity, but that obviously changed.
Over the last decade has overseen our city’s tourism efforts as the city has grown to welcome the millions of visitors who aren’t just driving through or connecting flights at Tulsa international Airport.
The recent addition of the Gathering Place and it’s national coverage in USA Today, the New York Times and more helped make Ray’s job a little easier. There’s also the resurgence of Route 66. We talk about both.
Tulsa Tough and its Cry Baby Hill will return. Iron Man is rescheduled for 2021. There are new museums being built and older ones going through renovations. We discuss all those great things still to come.
For Ray, his attention is currently on helping safely reopen Tulsa because the city needs to have hotels, restaurants, museums and stores open for visitors to return. He shares the importance of the Tulsa Safely program as we progress toward the holidays and new year.
In this conversation we recorded on Sept. 28, Ray discusses how tourism is slowly coming back seven months after the pandemic shut down our city.
In a city and state where the budget is largely funded from tax dollars, it’s vitally important our city’s leaders find ways to help our local businesses generate revenues.
As you’ll hear, Ray is passionate about his job and he and his team are working hard to help Tulsa recover and then resume its mission to become a major tourist draw in the middle in the of the U.S. And if there’s one thing we have going for us, it’s that the Mother Road runs right through the middle of town.
I enjoyed chatting with Ray and learning from him. We’re in good hands.
Following my conversation, The Voice digital editor and music writer Kyra Bruce shares the new song “Together” from Tulsa hip-hop artist Benzo. More on him later.
OK, let’s get this going.
This is Tulsa Talks with Ray Hoyt.
Previous Episode
Tulsa's beer pioneer – Eric Marshall, Marshall Brewing Co.
Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.
It wasn’t that long ago that Tulsa and Oklahoma were living in the dark ages. It was a time when we were a land of 3.2 Bud heavies and Bud Lights, so people had to travel long distances to get certain strong beers. Some may have even died from dysentery on the trail. The year was 2007.
It was then Eric Marshall, my guest on this episode, returned to his hometown after studying the art of brewing in Munich, Germany. There he was awarded the prestigious International Diploma in Brewing Technology from the World Brewing Academy.
Within a year Marshall Brewing Company became Tulsa’s first production craft microbrewery.
It was the dawn of a new age in Tulsa.
As Marshall six packs of Sundown Wheat flew off the liquor store shelves and McNellie's Pub Ale flowed out of McNellie's taps, other Tulsans began brewing their own beers and launching their own companies. Soon beer options were all over the spectrum from super hoppy to sour beers featuring artistic labels.
In less than a decade a brewery district had formed just east of downtown and to the west of the Marshall Brewery located on 6th St about midway between Utica and Lewis.
In this conversation, Eric looks back at those early days of brewing and the revolution his company started in Tulsa. He also talks about how his work went beyond the brewery and to help modernize Oklahoma’s alcohol laws.
When voters approved State Question 792 in Nov. 2016, it opened the doors to taprooms statewide and created the opportunity for brewers to enter grocery store distribution without reducing the alcohol content of their beers.
Eric is a proud Tulsan, who graduated from the University of Tulsa. We discuss how much has changed for the better in Tulsa in this phone conversation that occurred on the first day of Fall.
We start this conversation with how things have been going since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Tulsa. There’s been bumps, but there’s also been some fun like the Marshall beer collaboration with Brian Horton for the release of “Back to Paradise: A Tulsa Tribute to Okie Music.”
I had a great time chatting with Eric and getting to hear his perspective on the industry and enjoyed hearing him talk about his love for Tulsa.
Following that conversation, Voice digital editor and music writer Kyra Bruce shares the song “Spit (You Out)” by Rainbeaux. More on that later.
Ok let’s get this going.
This is Tulsa Talks with Eric Marshall.
Next Episode
From Holdenville to Hollywood – Sterlin Harjo, filmmaker
Welcome to Tulsa Talks presented by Tulsa Regional Chamber. I’m your host Tim Landes.
When many people think of Native Americans in the movies and television, they think of savages who are the sworn enemy of the white hat cowboy. Or maybe they take in a lost white man and show them their ways. There’s always face paint and teepees. If it deals with modern issues, it’s often the FBI or the government coming in to help the tribe solve a crime.
My guest on this episode is doing all he can to change all that. Sterlin Harjo is a Seminole and Muscogee Creek filmmaker, who calls Tulsa home.
He recently wrapped production on the pilot for his FX show “Reservation Dogs.” It’s a semi-autobiographical story about being a teen on a reservation. He’s working on the project with his friend and mentor, Oscar winner Taika Waititi, who collected an Academy Award earlier this year making him the first indigenous winner ever... in 2020.
I’ve known Sterlin for many years. In our past I worked for Cherokee Nation Businesses when he co-created Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People, which shares the stories and history about my tribe.
He’s made three feature films and multiple documentaries, directed TV shows and has more projects in the works, including with my favorite actor Ethan Hawke. You’ll be able to hear my excitement when he talks some about that project.
We discuss native representation in Hollywood, and how he’s serving as a trailblazer to end Hollywood stereotypes and create stories today’s native population can relate to while educating others. We also discuss his work with the popular Native comedy troupe The 1491s, which continues to find ways to create comedy during the pandemic.
It’d been a while since Sterlin and I got to have a lengthy chat, so we had lots to talk about when we recorded this conversation by phone a couple weeks ago.
This is a fun one, and also an important conversation. After you’ve listened to it give us a rating and subscribe to ensure you’re alerted when our next episode drops.
Ok, let’s get this going.
This is Tulsa Talks with Sterlin Harjo.
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