Publication:
Governor Kemp announces $ 2 million in marketing grants and collaborative funding to support tourism industry recovery
Atlanta, GA – Recently, Governor Brian P. Kemp, in partnership with Explore Georgia, the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) state tourism bureau, announced the recipients of a special round of Tourism Recovery Marketing Grants. The Explore Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant program supports marketing efforts to aid the recovery of Georgia’s tourism industry from the COVID-19 pandemic. This one-time grant program will provide 34 destination marketing organizations in 27 counties with a total of nearly $ 1.5 million in recreational marketing funding.
Governor Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly approved $ 1 million in the FY21 revised budget for tourism recovery. Due to the significant number of grant applications – from 58 organizations with a total of nearly $ 2.5 million in funding requests – Explore Georgia contributed an additional $ 1 million from the state tourism marketing budget to fund as many grants as possible. The Explore Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing program also includes $ 500,000 in cooperative matching funds for a total of $ 2 million in recovery assistance.
“A prosperous tourism industry creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and has a positive effect on the health and vitality of our state’s economy. I’m proud to be supporting our hard-working tourism organizations across the state with this reconstruction funding. said Governor Kemp. “The tourism and hospitality community needs our support more than ever, and this funding will provide the immediate marketing support they need to ensure Georgia is on the minds of avid travelers.”
The Explore Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant program is designed to help the areas of the state hardest hit by the decline in tourism and fund promotional activities to aid the travel industry’s recovery in 2021 with the greatest impact from loss of visitors and subsequent tourism spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Georgia is a beautiful state, and as we continue to recover, I look forward to working with our industrial partners to bring the incredible tourism benefits of the state to travelers around the world.” said Pat Wilson, Commissioner of GDEcD. “These grants are an important tool for our industry organizations, most of which are small businesses, to begin their recovery efforts. We are committed to rebuilding the travel and tourism sectors across our state as Georgia’s diverse economy cannot fully recover until our tourism and hotel industries are flourishing again. “
According to the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers, 90% of travelers now have travel plans for the next six months, the highest level in more than a year. Explore Georgia with an emphasis on funding marketing programs that can be quickly activated and placed in the marketplace to capitalize on this anticipated surge and opportunity.
“As we head into a summer that anticipates a tremendous resurgence in domestic tourism and the economic prosperity that travel brings, funding for these scholarships recognizes the importance of delivering the diversity of Georgia’s visitor experiences that are so indigenous to Georgia are many Americans “, said Mark Jaronski, Deputy Tourism Officer of GDEcD. “With a great collaboration with our destination marketing partners across the state, we believe we can be most effective in what is likely to be an incredibly competitive landscape by jointly promoting Georgia to the American public and complementing the Ready state’s tourism recovery campaign. To adjust. Georgia.”
Applications were assessed based on needs, quantified by the annual loss in hotel-motel excise tax surveys for the organization and the change in unemployment in the organization’s district. Scholarship holders received 100% of the requested funding.
click Here to indicate the recipients of the tourism recreation marketing grants.