Visit Montgomery outlines grants, agritourism work as hotel-tax revenue softens

Visit Montgomery, the county's destination marketing organization funded by a dedicated 7% hotel‑motel tax plus any supplemental county appropriations, briefed the Montgomery County Council Economic Development Committee on Jan. 27 about recent grants, marketing work and possible service expansions as hotel tax receipts show signs of weakening.

The discussion centered on four federal and state grant programs Visit Montgomery is implementing, marketing and data investments, and an agritourism strategy. “Year to date fiscal year ’25 through Nov., it’s only up about 1%,” Visit Montgomery senior staff said of hotel tax collections; packet materials cited a separate fiscal note projecting a larger possible FY26 decline. The group emphasized that because Visit Montgomery’s baseline revenue is tied to the hotel‑motel tax, fluctuations in that tax can materially alter their budget and ability to sustain new positions or programs.

Why it matters: the county routes a fixed 7% of the county’s hotel‑motel tax to the Conference and…