LEONARDTOWN, Md. — The Maryland Tourism Coalition (MTC) held their Industry Meet-Up in downtown Leonardtown Tuesday, Dec. 16, bringing tourism and hospitality professionals together as part of the organization’s ongoing statewide outreach and networking efforts.
Hosted at The Inn at Leonardtown, the meet-up included structured networking and a scavenger hunt through the historic downtown business district, which encouraged people to find local shops and attractions while supporting Leonardtown’s boutiques, small businesses and historic streets decorated for the holiday season.
MTC Industry Meet-Ups are hosted periodically across Maryland and are designed to reconnect existing MTC members, introduce new members to the organization, and provide opportunities for local tourism businesses to engage with peers and coalition leadership.
Hosting the MTC Industry Meet-Up in Leonardtown placed a statewide tourism organization in St. Mary’s County, a county known for its historic sites, arts district, waterfronts, small-town destinations and a growing role in seasonal tourism. The evening highlighted Leonardtown’s walkable downtown spaces and its capacity to host professional gatherings and integrate local businesses, lodging and visitor experiences.
Visit St. Mary’s Executive Director Liz Mildenstein said the Maryland Tourism Coalition Industry Meet-Up brought tourism partners from St. Mary’s County and beyond together to strengthen connections with businesses operating within the local visitor economy.
“The whole idea is just to connect folks who are running businesses or facing challenges that are unique to tourism in St. Mary’s County,” Mildenstein said. “Tourism is a massive economic driver here.”
Visit St. Mary’s partnered with the Maryland Tourism Coalition to host the meet-up as part of MTC’s recurring, statewide Industry Meet-Up series. The coalition supported tourism partners in Maryland through education, advocacy and networking.
“Maryland Tourism Coalition does these industry meet-ups quarterly, and they do them throughout the state,” Mildenstein said. “They advocate for partners, whether it’s legislative or with education opportunities and symposiums.”
Ruth Toomey, executive director of the Maryland Tourism Coalition, said the organization intentionally brought its Industry Meet-Up to communities across the state to ensure regions were included and visible to local tourism economies.
“Tonight, we’re bringing the industry together in Southern Maryland. We like to make sure that we do events that touch every part of the state,” Toomey said. “With the holiday season coming, Leonardtown is booming. If you have never been here before, there are so many additions and so many new stores.”
Leonardtown’s recent business growth and downtown revitalization was part of the reason for holding the Industry Meet-Up in the community. Toomey said the region’s history, waterfronts, and variety of experiences, including its role in Maryland’s early history with the first landing and its connection to the Chesapeake Bay, made the area a natural fit for tourism as well.
“St. Mary’s County has a lot to offer. A lot of people just think it’s so far away that they don’t come down here, but if they do, there’s so much history,” Toomey said. “We’ve got great lighthouses, museums, history, we’ve got the naval base, which also adds a different piece of charm to the area, it’s a great place to get married, there is lots of water.”
Folks from local businesses and attractions attended the Industry Meet-Up, including Lauren Zimmerman, winemaker at Port of Leonardtown Winery, who said the Maryland Tourism Coalition Industry Meet-Up brought together professionals from different sectors of the tourism industry while encouraging participants to explore downtown Leonardtown. She said that the Port of Leonardtown Winery was a locally rooted tourism destination located minutes from downtown.
“We are a local business two minutes from downtown Leonardtown,” Zimmerman said. “We’re open seven days a week, we do tastings, wine pairings, live music and food trucks every Saturday and Sunday.”
Zimmerman said the winery sourced grapes locally in Maryland and produced its wines on site.
“We are 100 percent locally grown,” Zimmerman said. “All our vineyards are in Maryland, and all of our wines are made right on site, from grape to glass.”
As part of their community engagement, Zimmerman said the Port of Leonardtown Winery collaborated with the St. Mary’s County Arts Council on a public wine label design contest tied to the release of a new white wine.
“We’re doing a fun collaboration fundraiser contest for local artists to submit a wine label for our new white wine we’re bottling and releasing this spring,” Zimmerman said. “The winning label gets printed on all of our bottles, and then we donate a percentage of sales to the Arts Council.”
The winery brought in people from outside the region and played a role in supporting tourism throughout the region. Their focus on local production and partnerships also aligned with Leonardtown’s broader tourism identity and ongoing growth as a destination for visitors.
Susie Glauner, executive director of the St. Mary’s County Arts Council, said the Maryland Tourism Coalition meet-up helped elevate St. Mary’s County by directing statewide attention and marketing energy toward the region’s cultural and historic assets. She said Leonardtown’s designation as an arts and entertainment district was a key tourism driver and that it is the only such district in Southern Maryland.
“Leonardtown is a designated arts and entertainment district through a designation program of the Maryland State Arts Council,” Glauner said. “We are the only one here in Southern Maryland.”
The arts district designation supported tourism by encouraging public art, arts businesses, state-level marketing and incentives that strengthened creative activity in the downtown area. Glauner said that a new public art plan for Leonardtown was developed through community input, as well as future installations planned throughout the county.
“Public art has a great way of demonstrating investment in a town or an area,” Glauner said. “When art shows up, it shows that people care about that place and think it’s special.”
Karen Stone, museum division manager for St. Mary’s County Museums, said the Maryland Tourism Coalition Industry Meet-Up provided an opportunity for statewide tourism organizations to connect while highlighting Leonardtown and St. Mary’s County as destinations.
“This is a chance for tourism agencies, including historic sites, hotels, wineries, and everybody from around the state to come and spend some time together,” Stone said. “It’s nice to get together in different parts of the state so that we can all be familiar with what everybody else does and has to offer.”
St. Mary’s County has several upcoming tourism initiatives, including a new ADA-compliant water taxi to St. Clement’s Island, expanded museum facilities and new heritage programming. Stone said the new St. Clement’s Island Museum will expand exhibit space and tell Maryland’s founding story and the story of the Piscataway people, Southern Maryland’s Indigenous peoples.
“We have a new water taxi that we’re going to launch in the spring, which is ADA compliant,” Stone said. “Many more people will be able to get out to St. Clement’s Island.”
Stone said St. Mary’s County museums worked closely with the Maryland Tourism Coalition through membership, board participation, shared marketing, education and workforce development.
“It’s more than a membership organization,” Stone said. “It’s a collaborative partnership in promoting tourism across the entire state.”
By holding an Industry Meet-Up in Southern Maryland, the coalition extended its outreach beyond Maryland’s primary tourism corridors and reinforced the role of smaller destinations in the state’s broader visitor economy.
MTC plans to continue hosting Industry Meet-Ups in communities throughout Maryland as part of its ongoing work to support tourism businesses, destination development and cross-regional collaboration.
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