OCEAN CITY – Ocean City residents could have the opportunity to vote on an ordinance passed late last year that will scale up the percentage of room tax dedicated to destination marketing after a petition for referendum drive appears to have acquired the requisite number of signatures.
In December, the Mayor and Council narrowly passed an ordinance that will alter the formula for how a percentage of room tax generated in the resort is distributed to marketing and advertising. By way of background, Ocean City’s room tax in 2019 was raised from 4.5% to 5% with about 44% of the revenue dedicated to marketing and advertising and 56% dedicated to the town’s general fund to help offset the cost of increased tourism, such as increased fire and police services, public works, salaries and overtime, for example.
The council was presented different options on how best to distribute a percentage of the room tax revenue to destination marketing. The option ultimately chose by the council on a 4-2 vote was to scale up the contribution of room tax to destination marketing and advertising in the coming fiscal years. For fiscal year 2023, the policy of 2% of the room tax revenue collected in the resort would be dedicated to destination marketing, while scaling up the percentage for that purpose to 2.1% in fiscal year 2024 and 2.2% in fiscal year 2025.
There are essentially two schools of thought regarding the distribution of room tax revenue in the resort. On the one hand, dedicating more of the room tax revenue to marketing and advertising will only grow the revenue source by attracting more visitors to Ocean City. On the other hand, attracting more visitors to Ocean City, particularly in the shoulder seasons and offseason with more and more special events puts additional strain on essential services such as police, fire and paramedics, public works and other departments.
Local resident Vince Gisriel has publicly challenged the ordinance on the grounds the scaled increases in the amount of room tax dedicated under the broad umbrella of marketing and advertising would exponentially grow those budgets at a rate faster than the general fund growth. To that end, in December he sent a letter and a draft petition for a referendum on the room tax ordinance to the city solicitor for approval.
The have priced me out of the market.
That is why I vacation at Hilton Head SC or the Beach’s of North Carolina.
Ocean City really isn’t all that great.
The Baltimore – Washington crowd as well as PA can have it.
Is there any true data (not “two schools of thought”) showing that marketing has helped?
If not then no. Feelings, thoughts, guesses or possibilities are not data.