South County Tourism Council

What South County Tourism Council does

Belmont County Tourism Council operates as the official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) for Belmont County, Ohio, doing business as Visit Belmont County and Belmont County Tourism. Headquartered in St. Clairsville, Ohio, the council's functional role is to promote the county as a tourism destination to out-of-area visitors, group tour operators, and the regional leisure-travel market. Its core products include the Visit Belmont County website (a 200+ business directory plus events calendar), an annual printed Visitors Guide, and experiential tourism products such as the Bigfoot GeoTour integrated with the Adventure Lab geocaching platform.

The council's business model is funded primarily through county lodging-tax receipts and tourism development fees rather than transactional revenue, consistent with the typical Ohio DMO structure. It does not sell directly to end consumers but instead drives demand that accrues to local lodging, dining, attractions, and events businesses. The council further acts as a grant administrator, deploying $107K+ in GAP (tourism development) grants to 52+ non-profit partners, and serves as a convening body across an ecosystem that includes local chambers of commerce, Ohio History Connection, Sons of the American Revolution, and lodging operators such as Candlewood Suites.

Operationally, the council runs with a small team led by Executive Director Jackee Pugh, supported by a Group Tour Manager (Cathryn Stanley) and additional staff. Leadership has invested in industry capacity-building — a staff member graduated from the Ohio Tourism Leadership Academy in 2025 — and the organization has accumulated recognition including the 2025 RUBY Award, Tourism Champion of the Year, Best Hometowns (Ohio Magazine), and the Mattox Award. Its competitive position is anchored in its quasi-governmental DMO designation, which provides exclusive authority to market the county and to administer lodging-tax marketing funds, paired with a multi-channel distribution footprint spanning web, print, geocaching platforms, and partner networks.

Name

South County Tourism Council

Legal name

Belmont County Tourism Council

Website

https://visitbelmontcounty.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Belmont County Tourism Council is the official Destination Marketing Organization for Belmont County, Ohio, promoting the county to visitors through its Visit Belmont County website, annual Visitors Guide, Bigfoot GeoTour, and events calendar, funded by lodging-tax receipts and tourism development fees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Destination Marketing and Tourism Promotion

NAICS

Convention and Visitors Bureaus (561591), Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation (71)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Permitting, Reservations & Visitor Information Services (Passes, Booking, Visitor Centers) (THAAAGAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Recreation & Activity Services (Hiking, Boating, Climbing, Fishing—Guided/Authorized) (THAAAGAF)

Keywords

• Destination marketing services
• Tourism promotion services
• Visitor information services
• Geotourism program management
• County tourism grants

Headquarters

HQ city

St. Clairsville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Tourism Promotion Services: Promotes Belmont County as a tourism destination, manages visitor information services, and administers GAP grant programs for local tourism-related organizations. Funded through local lodging tax and tourism development fees.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

South County Tourism Council operates as the official destination marketing organization for Belmont County, Ohio. It promotes the county as a tourism destination through the Visit Belmont County website, events calendar, visitor guides, newsletter, and social media. It also administers the GAP grant program that funds more than 52 local non-profits and tourism-related organizations annually.

Product overview

Visit Belmont County is a tourism marketing platform operated by the Belmont County Tourism Council that promotes travel and tourism to Belmont County, Ohio. The core offering is the visitbelmontcounty.com website which serves as a comprehensive destination marketing portal. The platform includes supplementary products: the Belmont County Bigfoot GeoTour (a themed geocaching program with 20+ locations), the Bigfoot Adventure Lab (an interactive mobile adventure experience), a visitors guide (available in print and digital formats), and an events calendar listing local happenings. The platform functions as a directory and discovery tool connecting visitors with local attractions, accommodations, restaurants, and activities across the county.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Visit Belmont County Website

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Ohio Travel AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025Professional association representing Ohio's $57 billion travel industry. Provides leadership development through the Ohio Tourism Leadership Academy, industry advocacy, and networking opportunities for destination marketing organizations like Belmont County Tourism.
• Candlewood Suites St. ClairsvilleminorGTM or Marketing PartnerPartner hotel offering geocaching visitors a special discount for overnight stays. The discount is applied automatically through a direct booking link on the Belmont County Tourism geotour page.
• Sons of the American Revolution (Ebenezer Zane Chapter)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal chapter that partners with Belmont County Tourism for heritage events including cemetery sign dedications and Revolutionary War historical commemorations.
• Various Local Chambers of CommerceChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnerships with Barnesville Chamber of Commerce, St. Clairsville Chamber of Commerce, Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce, Martins Ferry Chamber of Commerce, and Shadyside Chamber of Commerce for joint tourism promotion and business development.
• Ohio History ConnectionminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerState historical organization that supports local heritage tourism initiatives, historic preservation efforts, and provides resources for Underground Railroad and National Road historical programming.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Visit Hocking Hills: DMO for Hocking County, Ohio, another rural Ohio county tourism promotion organization. Directly comparable in scale, lodging-tax funding model, and outdoor/heritage positioning to Belmont County Tourism Council.
• Visit Lake County (Ohio): County-level tourism promotion organization in Ohio serving Lake County. Comparable in operating model, lodging-tax funding, and small-staff structure, with similar outdoor and heritage marketing focus.
• Visit Guernsey County: County-level DMO in eastern Ohio adjacent to Belmont County. Highly comparable in geographic scope, rural-Appalachian positioning, and small-team destination marketing operations.

Broad incumbents

• TourismOhio: The state-level DMO for Ohio. Indirect overlap as it promotes all Ohio destinations including Belmont County and provides industry leadership through the Ohio Travel Association partnership, but operates at state scale rather than county scale.
• Experience Columbus: The DMO for the Columbus, Ohio region. Shares the destination marketing function and competes for Ohio visitor share, but operates with a city-level scope and substantially larger lodging-tax-funded budget.
• Destination Cleveland: The DMO for Greater Cleveland, Ohio, representing a much larger metropolitan visitor economy. Operates in the same destination marketing category and competes for the same visitor attention in Ohio, though at materially larger scale and budget.

Emerging players

• Roadtrippers: A trip-planning platform focused on road-trip discovery in the U.S., including regional routes and attractions. Comparable as a digital visitor-discovery channel competing for the same trip-planning moment, though operating at much larger scale.

Others

• Geocaching.com: The official geocaching platform with which the Belmont County Bigfoot GeoTour is integrated. Functions as an enabling distribution platform rather than a competitor, central to the DMO's differentiated geotourism product.
• Destinations International: The trade association for destination marketing organizations globally. Not a competitor but the industry body to which Belmont County Tourism Council is functionally comparable as a member-class DMO.
• Simpleview: A leading CRM, CMS, and marketing platform provider specifically built for DMOs and CVBs. Functions as a technology ecosystem peer whose tooling Belmont County Tourism Council relies on (or could rely on) for visitor information delivery.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/visitbelmontco1?lang=en
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCwpER55NCAW8iQD0qETR__g?view_as=subscriber
• Facebookfacebook.com/belmontcountytourism/?ref=bookmarks
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/belmont-county-tourism-council/?viewAsMember=true
• Instagraminstagram.com/belmontcountytourism/?hl=en
• TikToktiktok.com/@visitbelmontcounty

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about South County Tourism Council