OCEAN CITY, Md. - Ocean City is trying to make the town more than just a beach town by investing in destination advertising.
The town spent 11.6 million this past year on destination advertising. An increase from the previous budget of 6.7 million. The money for this advertising is covered by the taxes paid on hotel rooms in Ocean City.
Some locals like Harvey Rosenzwog said he doesn't mind the spending on advertising, "It's a resort town and we know that its whole purpose is to bring in visitors," Rosenzwog said.
"So if you don't keep growing, you start dying, I'm happy and hopefully help keep our taxes down," he said.
But others like Riley Smith think the town needs to stop advertising so much because it's losing it's resort town charm, "Prime examples, I don't want it to become Virginia Beach, Virginia, overbuilt, over populated, too much crime and just not a pretty place and Ocean City is on the way if the overdevelopment continues," Smith said.
The Town Council will discuss the specifics as to how the room tax money is spent at the next upcoming work session.