Rock And Ride Brings Economic Growth To Hospitality in Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Thousands of motorcyclists have cruised into Ocean City for OC Rock And Ride. The town of Ocean City and Worcester County rely on off season events such as Rock and Ride for the economic benefit.

Susan Jones is the CEO of the OCMD Hospitality Association, and explains why events like Rock And Ride, bring beneficial business to the area.

“So really what happens is especially with the motorcycles, they don’t have coolers.” Said Jones. “So they literally are eating out breakfast, lunch, and dinner or, you know, at least a couple of meals a day and they’re riding around the community. So it really generates economics not only for Ocean City, but for the entire county.” Said Jones.

Jones also explains that the success of hotels, in turn, benefit the entire town.

“So 60% of the 25 million that was generated from tourism is going into the town’s general fund.” Said Jones. “So it’s paying for things like public safety, cleaning our beaches, recreational programs. So tourism is important not only to the businesses in Ocean City, but honestly it should be important to the residents too, because it does help pay for a lot of things that keep our area going.”

Another main benefit of these events, is reeling in return visitors.

“No matter if it’s the concerts, if it’s a rock and ride events give people the initial reason to come, but it also opens them up to our community.” Said Jones. “A lot of these people may have never been here before, so they might say, wow, what a really clean, safe place to be and look at the free beach.”