The Mathews Planning Commission met virtually on Tuesday, March 16 to discuss tourism in the county.

In “The Case of Tourism in Mathews” document, written by planner Jim Robinson, it stated that tourism offers Mathews an opportunity to increase employment and tax revenues, despite Mathews’ low tourism revenue.

One of the main points of the document was that surrounding counties have had success in tourism.

“The significantly higher levels of travel expenditures in Middlesex, Lancaster and Northumberland suggest that Mathews has the potential to grow its tourism industry,” according to “The Case for Tourism in Mathews” document.

The document also showed that Mathews had significant tourism revenue growth in 2016 as a result of the “Be Here” marketing campaign, compared to years 2014, 2015 and 2017.

“The growth in travel spending in 2016 over 2015 was $1.9 million, significantly higher than the growth observed in any other year,” stated the document. “Not only did spendin...