Tourism contributes $512M annually to Montgomery's economy. An estimated $1.4 million is spent daily by visitors to Destination MGM. By increasing tax revenues with lodging taxes and sales taxes (on gas, food and other entertainment), visitors to our city add to the coffers, giving city leaders more money to provide more services without taking more from citizens through higher taxes. State tourism saves each household in Alabama $405 tax dollars each year. We see similar savings on a local level thanks to Montgomery tourism.
In 2011 the Chamber partnered with the City and County of Montgomery, along with River Region communities to launch the Central Alabama Sports Commission. Increased emphasis on the sports market resulted in 28 additional leads and 8,000 sports-related room night bookings in the first year. It is crucial that we have and maintain the infrastructure and venues that allow the Chamber, the Commission and individual hotels to go after convention, leisure travel and sports travel business.
We also try to ensure that when they do come here, they have a good experience and we get the opportunity for another convention. The Chamber has a focused initiative to market Montgomery as a destination with a unified brand and voice. This includes launching an aggressive media placement effort and story-telling campaign that integrates economic development, visitor and resident messaging through the #mgm initiative to build community stewardship.
