Visit the County held its third Annual General Meeting at the Picton Town Hall last week to go over its numbers and this year’s funds. 

The County collected $1.296 million in Municipal Accommodation Tax in 2024–a drop of about $250,000 from 2023’s $1.522 million.

MAT revenues, divided between the County, StayPEC, and Visit the County, form the basis of VTC’s budget. Its share this year comes to $523,000.

VTC’s total budget for 2025 includes $548,000 in revenues and $196,000 carried over as surplus, or reserve funds.

2024 saw the most unique visitors ever recorded, 
a whopping 360,300. 
That’s about 35,000 more than the previous year, and more
even than at the peak of the pandemic 
in 2021, which saw 334,150 unique visitors.
 

Visit the County’s three largest line items are its three employees; the marketing it does to keep the County top of mind with potential tourists and within the tourism industry; and its reserve funds.

This year, $170,000, or just under a third of its revenues, will be held in reserve.

 “Our goal is a year’s operating budget in reserves,” said Board Chair Rebecca Mackenzie.

“We don’t know what our revenue is till halfway through the year,” she explained. The delay is due to the County’s MAT collection and accounting. The County announced 2024’s total collected MAT funds on May 27.

“That’s a challenging situation; we don’t want to spend more than we have. So, we must keep reserves high.”

VTC expects to spend $223,000 on wages this year, split between its Executive Director, Sarah Fox, Lindsay Medeiros, its marketing strategist, and a third on social media content creation.

And it will dedicate about $253,000 to marketing.

That sum is quite a bit less than 2024, which saw the launch of an expensive new website. Last year, VTC spent $429,000 on marketing, including social media advertising, primarily Meta’s Instagram and Google Ads; advertising partnerships, including a successful collaboration with Destination Ontario; and the hosting of social media influencers in the County.  

A portion of that spend also supported the local tourism industry through VTC’s Community Partnership Fund, procurement at local businesses, and use of the local media.

While Ms. Fox said VTC was unable to provide a specific breakdown of last year’s near half-million advertising spend, she did supply a chart detailing that spend since VTC was established in 2022. Between 2022-2024, 5% of Visit the County’s marketing budget was dedicated to the Community Partnership Fund, 4% to local businesses, and 4% to local media.

But in 2024, more funds were available. VTC’s share of the total MAT funds collected in 2023, $1.568 million, was $624,000. It saw a further $34,000 from its partnership with Stay PEC. Total revenues were $674,000, considerably more than this year’s $548,000.

The decline in MAT funds collected in 2024 does not mean fewer visitors were coming to the County. The opposite is the case. 2024 saw the most visitors ever recorded, a whopping 360,316 unique visitors, about 35,000 more than the previous year, and more even than at the peak of the pandemic in 2021, which saw 334,154 unique visitors.

More of those stayed the night, though. Visitors last year booked fewer overnight stays than either during or before the pandemic.

Looking ahead, Ms. Fox plans to revise the partnership structure of Countylicious, and purchase better sources of data for tracking tourism. That could include an enhanced contract with AirDNA, which can track visitor stays in the region almost in real time, and using Moneris to track retail spending. 2026 will also see the launch of new Arts and Taste Trails in spring.

Ms. Fox also lauded the new Visitor Information Center and transit hub that, in coordination with the County Transit, it will launch at The Regent Theatre on Picton Main Street this summer. The Regent will be open to welcome tourists and share information from 10am to 10pm every day starting July 2.

A community engagement town hall and a resident survey are in the works as VTC tracks a future course that encourages a flourishing, thriving community propelled by a vigorous tourist economy.

The meeting was Ms. Mackenzie’s last as Board Chair. She steps down in July, to be replaced by Vice Chair Mikki Arends.  

Ed Note: This article has been amended to clarify Visit the County’s 2025 budget anticipates three employees.