Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tourism Economy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Visit Montgomery briefs Gaithersburg leaders on tourism trends and local rental data request
Summary
Visit Montgomery presented countywide tourism metrics to the Gaithersburg mayor and council on May 11, reporting declines in occupancy and hotel tax collections but recent signs of recovery; the agency offered to provide city-level short-term rental data and outlined grant-funded marketing initiatives.
Kelly Grath, president and chief executive officer of Visit Montgomery, told the Gaithersburg mayor and city council on May 11 that the county’s tourism sector has weathered declines in lodging rates and tax collections but shows early signs of recovery.
Grath said Visit Montgomery’s work blends destination marketing with destination management and that the office tracks occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room using industry data sources. "We are called a destination marketing organization, a DMO. And our job is to market the community as a place for visitors to come and enjoy our community and...so they leave behind money so we can build roads and schools," she said.
Why it matters: Tourism generates visitor spending that supports local restaurants, retail and lodging and contributes hotel-tax revenues used by county and municipal governments. Grath’s briefing provided recent performance measures, examples of marketing and product-development work, and follow-up items the council requested specific to Gaithersburg.
Key points and figures
- Lodging metrics: Grath reported that, for the July 1–Feb 28 reporting window, occupancy was down about 5.8 percent and average daily rate and revenue per available room had also declined; she said initial March 2026 data suggest improvement and that "maybe the worst is behind us." These figures were presented by Visit Montgomery from industry data sources cited by the presenter.
- Hotel tax and visitation: Grath reported an approximate 8 percent decline in hotel-tax collections for the first six months of FY26 versus the prior period and cited a countywide visitation figure the presentation listed as 8.9 million day and overnight visitors with roughly $23 million in countywide hotel-tax revenue (speaker-provided figures).
- Sales successes: Visit Montgomery reported bookings up year-to-date, from 84 bookings in 2025 to 129 bookings in 2026, and highlighted recent conference wins and sports events that generate substantial room nights.
- Marketing and tools: The office described digital advertising, earned-media efforts (including planned familiarization tours for travel writers), an 'adventure planner' app and four interactive kiosks at major visitor nodes to help guests find local activities.
- Grants and partnerships: Grath summarized four Economic Development Administration grants used to expand rural branding and Moco Eats programming and said the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism awarded a two-year, $700,000 initiative (Meet in Maryland) that DMOs collectively match at modest levels. She also said Visit Montgomery received a $226,000 Maryland Department of Commerce grant to grow a "Tastemaker Trail" linking wineries, breweries and distilleries.
Council questions and follow-ups
Council members asked for additional, city-specific information and clarifications. When asked whether Visit Montgomery tracks Airbnb bookings, Grath said the office uses the platform AirDNA for short-term rental market intelligence and offered to provide Airbnb/AirDNA data narrowed to Gaithersburg boundaries as a follow-up. On a question about a labor dispute at a local Marriott conference facility, she said she had not seen major cancellations beyond local events.
Other exchanges covered familiarization touring for travel writers (Grath said a Society of American Travel Writers visit is expected in November 2026), sports-tourism planning (she described a sports task force entering an MOU with the stadium authority and estimated roughly nine months for study results) and marketing tied to the America 250th and regional convention bookings.
The meeting closed with the mayor reminding the public of the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 16 and adjourning the session.
What’s next: Visit Montgomery committed to provide Gaithersburg-specific short-term-rental (AirDNA) data and to follow up on which transportation modes are included in their metrics; the sports tourism task force study is expected to report in approximately nine months.
