The data is in and 2014 was a big year for tourism in Montgomery County. The county saw a record high of $1.75 billion in tourism dollars.

As announced in a Visit Montgomery news release:

According to the study, Montgomery County welcomed more than 8 million visitors, including over 3 million overnight visitors. These visitors spent $1.75 billion in 2014 which means that travelers spent $200,000 per hour in the county and this spending represented 10.7% of all visitor dollars spent in the state. In 2014, the number of visitors grew 6.1% with sales totals up 3.7%.
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Tourism means more to the county than just the number of visitors and the business sales they represent. Tourism supports nearly 29,000 jobs in the county — 6.3% of all jobs in the county. Statewide, tourism ‘saves’ each household more than $1,000 – the amount each household in MD would need to contribute to replace state and local tax revenues generated by visitor activity.

For more information read the full Visit Montgomery news release.