HONESDALE, PA — Board President Genevieve Reese and CEO Carl Wilgus of the Pocono Mountain Vacation Bureau (PMVB) delivered their fiscal 2016 annual report to the Wayne Commissioners on November 10. The non-profit regional tourism marketing agency reported that last year, some 25.6 million visitors spent some $3 billion, providing jobs for 34.9% of all workers in the region. Wilgus reported on cell phone-related updates to the PMVB website and efforts to market the area to the large Chinese-American community in New York City.

Financially, he reported a $2 million increase from PMVB’s main revenue stream, the hotel tax, to $7.2 million, allowing PMVB to increase its spending on advertising, public relations and social marketing in the New York City and New Jersey area by a similar amount. However, declaring a $74,000 increase in losses to depreciation over 2015, PMVB finished the year with a deficit of $73,853.