The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce’s 147th annual meeting on December 10 put a spotlight on the second consecutive year of record-breaking growth.
- For the second year in a row, Montgomery experienced record-breaking announced industrial capital investment, this year reaching over $1 billion and over 1,200 announced new jobs.
- Montgomery’s largest-ever expansion announcement came just weeks ago with the announcement that Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama will invest $410 million to bring production of the Santa Cruz to the Montgomery plant, resulting in 200 new jobs with local suppliers projected to employ an additional 1,000 workers.
- Travel-related expenditures topped more than $972 million, representing a 15.5 percent increase, the largest percentage of growth ever recorded by the Alabama Tourism Department.
- The Chamber’s Destination Sales team sold 63,257 room nights, a 4.4 percent increase over 2018.
- Montgomery sold more than 25,000 more rooms this year than in 2018.
- The Chamber has continued to achieve national media attention for the city’s tourism, economic development and technology initiatives, earning more than 1.5 billion media impressions since 2017 through its targeted public relations activities.
- Enplanements at the Montgomery Regional Airport grew by 14.3 percent in 2019, and an additional direct flight to Washington, D.C., will begin service in January.
Newly elected Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed delivered the keynote address, sharing his vision for Montgomery’s economic future with the crowd of more than 600 business, military, community and elected leaders in attendance. 2019 Chairman Willie Durham presented the Chairman’s Award to Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, for the transformative and positive impact he and his organization have had on the city and the nation.
