Commerce pitches pilot event-grant pool from Destination Development funds to attract longer stays

Sarah Adi Coleman, director of the Tourism and Marketing Division at the Department of Commerce, told the Appropriations - Education and Environment Division committee that the governor has proposed a pilot to use part of the Destination Development grant pool for large events and festivals intended to increase nonresident visitors and longer stays.

Coleman said the agency would "earmark a million of those dollars" from the destination development pool to support large events, if the fund available to Destination Development grows beyond the governor’s recommendation. She said the state previously administered a small event-grant program that ended after budget cuts during the Dalrymple administration and that parameters for a new pilot would need to be defined to avoid supplanting existing festival budgets.

Context and finances

Coleman said the department had obligated the $25,000,000 awarded last session and has seen $150,000,000 in requests against that pool. She described the governor’s recommendation as $15,000,000 for the destination pool and said the Senate recommended increasing that to $20,000,000; she proposed that $1,000,000 of any additional funds be set aside for larger events aimed at drawing longer visits.

Committee response and next steps

Committee members asked for more detail and time to review the proposal; Coleman said program parameters would need to be fine-tuned to focus on generating new trips and longer stays rather than replacing existing festival funding. No formal action or appropriation was made during the meeting.

Ending note

The committee moved on to other business after the tourism briefing; members indicated they would continue to consider the pilot while completing other budget and agency reviews.