Destination Hilliard presents 2025 year-in-review to council, cites event and visitor gains

Samantha Brill, executive director of Destination Hilliard, gave a year-in-review presentation to Hilliard City Council on Feb. 9, 2026 outlining events, partnerships and visitor metrics for 2025.

Brill said Destination Hilliard “did 8 events that we led on our own, we sponsored 9 events, we had 1 scavenger hunt experience,” and reported the organization posted “over 2,000 social media posts” and reached “over 27,000,000 different viewers.” She told council the organization recorded “over a 127,000 hotel stays and 48,000 website users exploring Hilliard,” and cited Placer AI data estimating $64,000,000 in spending tied to overnight visits.

The presentation described Destination Hilliard’s role as the city’s destination marketing organization: producing visitor guides (about 5,000 distributed), maintaining hotel maps and event promotion, and coordinating with local partners such as the Hilliard Ohio Historical Society and Hilliard City School District to create collaborative experiences. Brill said the group works with city staff (she named Andrea Litchfield and Kristen Turner) on event planning and on plugging local attractions into statewide programs such as America250.

On funding, Brill said “a higher revised code mandates that 25% of bed taxes go to an entity that markets the place where hotels reside” and that Destination Hilliard supplements that allocation with sponsorships and grant-seeking. She described a sponsorship program to engage businesses that are not in the hospitality industry.

Council members asked about coordination with the city and praised recent efforts. Brill described working relationships with city staff and noted Destination Hilliard’s focus on creating visitor experiences distinct from city-run community events.

The presentation emphasized leveraging outside festivals to extend visitor stays; Brill said the Columbus Coffee Festival brought “over 11,000 people to Hilliard for a weekend” and credited downtown businesses with reporting a sales boost. She also highlighted educational and youth engagement initiatives such as a passport program updated by third-graders under Hilliard City Schools’ local history curriculum.

Brill framed the organization’s priorities as connecting businesses, amplifying existing programming, and making Hilliard visible to regional and statewide travel audiences. She closed by inviting council members and staff to follow up and by thanking them for the opportunity to present.

The presentation materials and the figures Brill cited were reported verbally to council during the meeting; the city council did not independently verify the numbers on the record during the session.

The council thanked Brill and moved on to other business.