Carson City region gets promotional boosts through Nevada tourism grants

The Nevada Commission on Tourism on Monday approved more than $1 million in grant funding to rural communities to promote tourism through marketing projects. Among the Carson City area programs funded through the marketing grants:

— $25,500 to the Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority. Among the grants, $7,500 for an advertising campaign targeting CCCTA's strongest drive market (Sacramento, San Francisco and Central California) in a year-long campaign integrating animated digital advertisement, adaptable to mobile devices, to promote the region and its attractions; $5,000 for website maintenance; and $5,000 for Nevada Magazine advertising.

A grant amount of $8,000 was allocated for the Passport to Downtown, Nevada Day program that takes place over the Nevada Day weekend. CCCTA will partner with the Downtown Carson City Business Association to host this event that will feature more than 30 businesses throughout downtown and will take place Friday and Saturday.

The goal is to get visitors from beyond 100 mile radius who were planning to come for the Saturday parade to come one or two days early to participate in the Passport event. The event attracted over 1,000 participants last year.

— $4,500 for the Brewery Arts Center. A grant of $2,500 was allocated for TEDx 2019 and a grant of $2,000 for Traditional Celtic Music Series, which runs from October through May.

— $14,500 for V&T Railway, Northern Nevada Railway Foundation. Among the awards are $7,000 that will be used for brochures and distribution, and $7,500 to targeted digital advertising to reach visitors who are already searching or are interested in Northern Nevada, Virginia City, Carson City, Hwy 50, history, arts and culture, trains, etc.

— Friends of the Nevada State Railroad Museum: $4,500 for a Nevada State Railroad Museum Wedding venue; $5,000 for marketing campaign, $7,200 for Nevada Magazine advertising.

Among other grants awarded from around the area:
— $1,000 to Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center. The grant will be used to cover the costs of a special event marketing campaign in an effort to create awareness of the Dayton special events throughout the year.

— $4,000 to Dayton Preservation Committee. Grant money to be used to market Dayton Valley Days.

— A $15,000 award was given to Pony Express Territory, the organization representing communities along the U.S. 50 corridor, to provide new creative for its ongoing advertising campaign. The updated campaign focuses on everything to do along U.S. 50, also known as “The Loneliest Road in America,” and will focus on each community along the highway.

— A $20,000 grant was allotted to the Carson Valley Visitors Authority to support a multi-media campaign in northern California. The campaign will expand on Carson Valley’s current Legends campaign featuring personalities of the region.

— $29,000 in total grant money was allocated to the Virginia City Tourism Commission. Among the grants are $10,000 for regional and national public relations, $7,000 for digital marketing expansion; $6,000 for the Fiesta Del Charro Rides into VC, and $6,000 in regional print advertising.

Piper’s Opera House also received three grants with a total amount of $7,500 for various promotions as did the Historic Fourth Ward School Foundation, with a $5,000 museum marketing grant.

Tourism is crucial to Nevada, and is the state’s largest export industry. Tourism enjoys a high profile in urban Las Vegas and Reno, but Nevada’s rural communities also depend on this industry. About 27,870 rural Nevada jobs are attributed to tourism; overall travel spending in rural Nevada is $2.3 billion, according to the Nevada Division of Tourism, also known as TravelNevada.

The division supports rural tourism through its Rural Marketing Grants program. Grants — approved by NCOT, TravelNevada’s oversight commission — are awarded twice per year. Funding is disbursed in the form of reimbursements to the recipients after the projected are completed and documented; this current distribution is the first for FY19.

For a complete list of grant recipients by territory (regional tourism promotion organizations), visit here.

The Nevada Division of Tourism is a division of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. More commonly known as TravelNevada, the Nevada Division of Tourism is responsible for promoting and marketing Nevada as a travel destination to domestic and international travelers. Operating within a performance-based budget structure, TravelNevada is funded solely by a percentage of lodging tax paid by overnight guests throughout the state. For more, visit TravelNevada.biz.