Visit Aurora Receives $400,000 from Statewide Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant
AURORA, Colo., October 25th, 2022 – Visit Aurora was awarded $400,000 from the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) through the Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant. The CTO announced the seven recipients of the grant earlier today. This one-time grant offered by the Colorado Tourism Office was funded through an EDA American Rescue Plan Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation State Grant, providing funding to eligible applicants to support the economic recovery of the travel and tourism industry in Colorado through the execution of tourism marketing and promotional campaigns.
The goal of this grant program is to support the economic recovery of the travel and tourism industry in the state and attract visitors to Colorado cities and towns that are still recovering from the pandemic.
“We are thrilled at the opportunity this grant provides to further our mission to amplify Aurora as a premiere destination for business events and leisure. As we emerge from challenging times, proactive investment in our Destination Marketing Organizations uplifts our entire state. Visit Aurora thanks the Colorado Tourism Office for their foresight and partnership. We are determined to fulfill our mission to propel Aurora to the benefit of its residents and Colorado as a whole.” – Bruce Dalton, CEO and President, Visit Aurora.
The Colorado Tourism Office received over $3.2 million in requests for the $1.8 million program for competitive funding. This is the largest amount of funding that the CTO has awarded through a grant program, more than doubling the previous record high of $750,000 awarded last year through the Tourism Marketing Matching Grant. Providing direct support to industry partners allows destinations to market to audiences that lost market share during the pandemic such as meetings and events, group travel, off-season visitors and international travelers.
Visit Aurora proposed a robust paid media strategy that focuses on target marketing in pursuit of high-impact meeting, convention, and event business. This omnichannel approach utilizes search, native, programmatic, display, digital, and print insertions in high-yield outlets. The grant will fund a business-focused campaign, which will be used to influence and reignite in-person meetings and events, stimulating economic activity in Aurora. As travel ramps up, the campaign will inspire planners to explore a new frontier for meetings and events. The campaign targets meeting planners and c-suite executives from association, corporate, government, contract, and SMERF groups to inspire and convert business at Aurora venues.
Each application was evaluated on the strength of a tourism recovery-focused marketing campaign, demonstrated recovery need, measurable tourism impact, quality of budget and timeline and implementation capacity. Eligible projects include city, county or regional tourism marketing and promotional campaigns overseen by nonprofit organizations promoting tourist destinations, Colorado cities or other political subdivisions of the state, economic development district organizations and Indian tribes.
Other organizations that received this funding include:
City of La Junta
City of Loveland - Economic Development Corp.
Colorado Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau
Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau
Fort Collins Convention & Visitors Bureau
Logan County