NEWS, RESOURCES AND A LOOK INSIDE THE MANY WAYS YOUR CHAMBER WORKS FOR YOU
Team Report - Destination MGM
Dawn Hathcock has been at the Chamber for 16 years and leads its convention and visitor bureau team now called Destination MGM. It works to showcase Montgomery as a great place to visit, both for business events like conferences and trade shows and for pleasure. She outlined how the team does its job.
Explain what you and the Destination MGM team do. Destination MGM’s overall mission is to promote the long-term development and marketing of the city as a destination. By creating a brand for the entire community and all of its tourism-related entities, we get the destination into the public’s consciousness, creating a continuous awareness of and demand for the “product.” That demand comes in the form of business travelers, convention attendees, leisure visitors and residents. Our new brand development team is charged with promoting Montgomery and the Chamber as a whole, whether it is to a visitor, local, economic development prospect, a small business owner, a large corporation or a convention or event planner.
How does the business community benefit from what your team does? The conventions and events that our team helps bring to Montgomery generate tax dollars to the local economy, and these visitors patronize and spend money with local businesses.
How does the community in general benefit? Tourism is economic development, so the money that comes from events we recruit puts more tax revenue into the city, county and state general funds. On any given night in Montgomery, approximately $1.3 million dollars is spent on lodging, dining, entertainment and shopping by visitors.
What are your team's most significant achievements? Montgomery has led the state in hotel occupancy for the last four years, and because of that, we are seeing a new interest in our city by hotel developers. We have been named the best CVB in the Southeast by Southeastern Tourism Society twice in the last 10 years.
What is your favorite thing about your job? We are selling and marketing a city that literally changed the world. To see the growth and the changes that have taken place over the last five, 10 and 15 years and knowing there are great things on the horizon is fun. Honoring our history and being a part of the new Montgomery is an honor.
ADD IT UP
75 HOTELS = 6,291 Rooms Each Night
64.1% Occupancy = 4,033 Rooms Sold Each Night
4,033 Rooms Sold at $95 = $383,135 Daily Hotel Revenue
Two People Per Travel Party = 8,066 Travelers Each Night
8,066 People Dining Daily $70 = $564,620 Daily Dining Revenue
Shopping, fuel, activities per travel party at $100 = $403,300 Daily Expense Revenue $
1,351,055 Visitor Spending Everyday
