YOUR AD HERE »

Tahoe receives $30K in Rural Nevada tourism grants

A crowd anticipates night one of Jack Johnson's sold out tour stop at Harvey's Lake Tahoe on Friday, July 28, 2017.
Sugarwolf |

The Nevada Commission on Tourism (NCOT) approved $660,600 in grants for rural tourism organizations, including $30,000 to the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority to promote Stateline and the South Shore, according to the Nevada Division of Tourism (known as TravelNevada).

Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison announced the grants, which will be distributed by TravelNevada through its longstanding Rural Marketing Grants program, earlier this week.

Among the tourism initiatives and special events to receive marketing grants in the Tahoe region were: the Amgen cycling race; a campaign to bring more meetings and conventions to Stateline; and advertising initiatives for summer events such as the Harveys summer concert series.



The $5,000 awarded for the Amgen race will go to “digital advertising, social media and public relations” for the race. This coming year, both the men’s and women’s race will have a stage in the Tahoe Basin. The races will draw some of the top cyclists in the world, thereby attracting “significant international attention to the event and the destination.”

The campaign to bring more conventions received $15,000 and LTVA was awarded $10,000 to continue promoting summer events that draw people to South Shore.



Those were just a few of the 104 grants that were awarded to nonprofit groups for tourism marketing projects that will result in overnight stays, ultimately increasing room tax revenue for the state.

“Tourism is a billion-dollar industry in rural Nevada, and the projects funded in this latest round of grants represent some of the best efforts to drive visitation to our rural communities,” Hutchison, NCOT chairman, said. “Rural Nevada continues to demonstrate the ingenuity and hard work it takes to keep its tourism industry strong, and we are pleased to support those efforts through this grant program.”

Among the other funded projects:

The Carson City Visitors Bureau received $15,000 to promote Nevada’s Single-track Mountain Bike Adventure. Funds will pay for video production, photography and website design to promote bike trails in communities along U.S. 50 and U.S. 93. While those communities — which include Carson City, Austin, Ely and Caliente — already have established trails, the Single-track Mountain Bike Adventure will encourage visitors to travel from town to town to experience cycling in those destinations.

A $7,000 grant was given to the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City to create promotional videos of the event. The Fallon Convention and Tourism Authority received $4,000 to market the Top Gun Dragstrip south of Fallon off U.S. 95.

Funding for the Rural Marketing Grants program doesn’t come from the state’s general fund. The Nevada Division of Tourism receives three-eighths of 1 percent of room tax revenue as its operations budget. Grant recipients must provide a 50-50 match in funds or volunteer hours unless a waiver is approved.

The Nevada Division of Tourism distributes the grants in the form of reimbursements to the recipients after the projects are completed and labor and funding details are documented.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond make the Tahoe Tribune's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.