Akron Summit Convention Visitors Bureau

Why now?

• July 2026: published its 2025 Year in Review, which reports a net loss of $337,117. The 2024 Year in Review had reported a net gain of $129,325 “on our operating budget”.¹²
• July 2026: released the 2025 Tourism Economics study. Direct visitor spending was $1.65B, against $1.67B in 2023 and 2024.³¹
• February 2026: Destination Development Grants totalled $50,000 across 35 organizations, from nearly 60 applications. In 2025, 35 organizations shared $100,000; in 2024, 34 shared $100,000, “the largest award year to date”.⁴⁵²
• November 2025: Summit County Council renewed the bureau’s lodging tax contract for 2026 to 2030, 11-0. Council members Rita Darrow and Christine Higham, who voted, also sit on the bureau’s board.⁶¹
• 2026: the Summit Brew Path is in its 10th year, now down to 16 stops after one brewery left and one closed.⁷⁸
• No changes on the staff page since Destination Pulse started reading it.⁹

Is there money?

• 2025 revenue was $7,352,947 against a $7,656,345 budget. 56% came from industry bed tax and 44% from operations; 79% of spending went to sales, marketing and client event support.¹
• The FY2024 990 shows revenue of $7,939,955 and a net loss of $265,263.¹⁰
• The bureau receives 72% of Summit County room taxes; the county lodging excise tax is 5.5%.²¹¹ Gross county bed tax collections were $5.48M in 2023.¹²
• In the 2023 state audit, the bureau’s own segment took in $4.10M and spent $1.63M. The Knight Center segment lost $2.51M on operations, against a $1.88M loss in 2022.¹²
• Advertising and promotion was $376,000 in 2021, $705,000 in 2022 and $769,000 in 2023.¹²
• Professional fees were $303,453 in 2023, against $142,865 in 2022.¹²
• The City of Akron pays $138,000 a year.¹²
• Media budget: not published.

Who decides?

Runs marketing

• Stephanie Berry, Vice President of Marketing & Brand Management; media contact¹³¹⁴
• Ty Johnson, Marketing & Social Media Manager; contact for the Summit Brew Path¹³⁷
• Jim McConihe, Senior Graphic Designer¹³

Leads the bureau

• Gregg M. Mervis, President & CEO since 2012; joined as Director of Sales in 1995¹⁵
• Morell Mendiola, Chief Financial Officer¹³
• Ren Camacho (Akron-Canton Airport), board chair. The 15 seats are appointed 7 by the City of Akron, 7 by the County of Summit and 1 by the Tri County Labor Council.¹⁶¹²

Titles from the staff page, the history page and the Year in Review. Contact details are on their staff page.

Who do they work with?

• Website: Simpleview; new sites for the bureau, the Knight Center and Greystone launched in April 2024.¹⁷²
• Visitor measurement: Arrivalist, implemented in 2025.¹
• Research: Tourism Economics with TourismOhio; STR for hotel data.³¹²
• Digital passport: LoyalBrew, for the Summit Brew Path.⁸
• Visitors guide: the 2026 guide is on the “greatlakespublishing” Issuu account.¹⁸
• Creators: Brandy Gleason (Ohio Road Trips) and Dina’s Days.¹
• Agency of record: not found on the 990, the website, the 2024 and 2025 Years in Review or the 2023 audit. The FY2024 990 lists no contractor paid over $100,000.⁹¹²¹²

When do they buy?

• The fiscal year ends in December.¹⁰
• The next board meeting is 19 November 2026, at noon at the Knight Center.¹⁹
• The county lodging tax contract runs to 31 December 2030.⁶
• Grants are announced in late January or early February; the Tourism Economics report comes out in July, followed by the Year in Review.⁴⁵³
• No procurement or vendor RFP page was found on the site.²⁰

What they’re running

• Summit Brew Path, 10th year: 1,729 completed passports and 1,618 at the Bash in 2025.¹
• The Drip Drive, 7th year: 22 coffee shops from 28 February 2026. 2025 had 28 shops and more than 630 passports, the largest to date.²¹¹
• Summit Sweet Stroll, 2nd year: 21 stops from 13 June 2026.²²
• Treasure Trail: launched November 2024 with 20 stores; creator Dina’s Days drew 685,000 views.²¹
• Tourism Drives Us: an advocacy campaign launched in 2025, citing $758 in tax savings per household.¹²³
• Savor the Scenic in Summit: a 2024 campaign, with a national TV commercial in July 2024 through the Kaulig Companies Championship.²
• Sports Alliance of Greater Akron: 120 sports events in 2025, and a new logo.¹

Worth knowing

• 2025 sales results: 157 RFPs (124 in 2024), 56 site visits (33) and 52,254 room nights (50,938).¹²
• Website users rose from 154,116 in 2024 to 278,551 in 2025.²¹
• Three venue staff are on the FY2024 990 but not on the staff page: the head electrician and the VPs of food and beverage and of operations.¹⁰¹³
• The 2023 audit says management “anticipates a flat revenue stream and will continue to contain costs”.¹²

Footnotes

1. 2025 ASCVB Year In Review, 2026-07, pp. 1-17. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. 2024 ASCVB Year In Review, 2024, pp. 2-13. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. “New Report Shows Tourism Continues to Fuel Summit County’s Economy”, ASCVB blog, 2026-07-23. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. “2026 Destination Development Grants Fuel Tourism Growth Across Summit County”, ASCVB blog, 2026-02-03. ↩ ↩²

5. “2025 Destination Development Grant Recipients”, ASCVB blog, 2025-01-28. ↩ ↩²

6. Resolution No. 2025-300, County of Summit Council, adopted 2025-11-10. ↩ ↩²

7. “Summit Brew Path Raises a Glass to 10 Years”, ASCVB blog, 2026-01-07. ↩ ↩²

8. Summit Brew Path, ASCVB, read 2026-10-12. ↩ ↩²

9. Destination Pulse org page, roster captured 2026-10-07. ↩ ↩²

10. Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 34-1131390, FY2024 990 filed 2026-03-24. ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Lodging Excise Tax, Summit County Fiscal Office, read 2026-10-12. ↩

12. Regular Audit for the Year Ended December 31, 2023, Ohio Auditor of State, 2024-11-20, pp. 5-11, 21-23, notes 1, 10. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

13. Staff Directory, ASCVB, read 2026-10-12. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

14. Media, ASCVB, read 2026-10-12. ↩

15. Our History, ASCVB, read 2026-10-12. ↩

16. “Summit County Tourism Industry Celebrated at 2026 Zenith Awards Luncheon”, ASCVB blog, 2026-05-11. ↩

17. visitakron-summit.org page source, read 2026-10-12. ↩

18. Akron/Summit County Insider Guide 2026, Issuu. ↩

19. About the ASCVB (2026 board schedule), read 2026-10-12. ↩

20. visitakron-summit.org sitemap, read 2026-10-12. ↩

21. “The 2026 Drip Drive is Here!”, ASCVB blog, 2026-02-27. ↩

22. “Summit Sweet Stroll Returns for a Second Year”, ASCVB blog, 2026-06-12. ↩

23. Tourism Drives Us, ASCVB, read 2026-10-12. ↩