VISIT MONTGOMERY LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE AND NAME CHANGE

Contact: Bethany Manimbo, 240-777-2064, bmanimbo@visitmontgomery.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VISIT MONTGOMERY LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE AND NAME CHANGE
Montgomery County’s Destination Marketing Organization

September 18, 2014 – Visit Montgomery is kicking off the fall season with exciting updates
including an organization name change and a new website.

Name Change

The organization formerly known as the Conference and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of Montgomery
County, MD Inc. is now Visit Montgomery. The name change follows a nationwide trend of
destination marketing organizations using verbs to promote their destination. Similar name
changes include the conversion of the Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau to Destination
Gettysburg, and nearby Visit Baltimore, Stay Arlington and Extraordinary Alexandria.

“We participate in a nationwide conference of similar organizations, and this is how destination
marketing organizations are beginning to re-brand themselves,” said Kelly Groff, President and
CEO of Visit Montgomery. “We included the tagline of ‘Maryland’s Gateway to the Nation’s
Capital’ to signify our proximity to Washington, D.C., which is a huge selling point.”

New Website

Visit Montgomery launched a new website with updated features like a county-wide calendar of
events, interactive map and a trip builder. The responsive design easily converts from a desktop
to a tablet or mobile device. “When we created this website, we tried to think like an actual
tourist. We integrated the Trip Advisor ratings into the listings to keep visitors on our website
longer,” said Bethany Manimbo, Director of Marketing at Visit Montgomery. “The trip builder
allows visitors to browse the site, save their itinerary and email it to themselves and friends.”Additional features include suggested itineraries with a built-in map route. Visitors can hover
over the route to obtain directions and print the itinerary. The staff provided input on the
suggested itineraries, and they continue to look for new ways to explore Montgomery County.
The staff blogs have a question and answer format that brings a personal touch to tourism.

County-wide Event Calendar

An updated feature of the new Visit Montgomery website includes a county-wide online
calendar of events. Visitors can subscribe to a specific event feed, such as ‘family fun’ or
‘outdoor adventures’ and have the events automatically appear on their Outlook calendar.
Organizations are encouraged to submit their events free of charge. The guidelines are that the
event occurs in Montgomery County and would be of interest to a tourist. “Submitting events is
much easier now. Organizations can enter single events without registering for website access,”
said Karla Saravia, Digital Marketing Manager. “Or they can send a .csv file to upload on the
website.” The event calendar is always in the top 5 pageviews on the Visit Montgomery website,
and that number continues to grow as popular events occur. During the first week of
September, the pageviews for the Silver Spring Jazz Festival increased by more than 1,000 from
the previous week. The Visit Montgomery website is an essential tool for tracking advertising
and marketing outreach. It helps determine the areas of interest so that Visit Montgomery can
create targeted campaigns to cater to specific audiences.

About Visit Montgomery:

The mission of Visit Montgomery is to enthusiastically promote, market and sell Montgomery County,
Maryland as a destination for meetings, conventions and individual travelers, fostering economic
development and benefiting and supporting members and the overall business community. It is Visit
Montgomery’s goal to show leadership and be regarded as a quality organization of experts and
advocates of its members, partnering with local, county and state organizations and government officials
in an effort to further these goals.