NYS EDA Tourism Partner Sub-Awards Grant Program Resources

A total of up to $14.25 million of NYS EDA Sub-Awards will be competitively granted to DMOs for marketing projects that concentrate on the sectors that comprise the New York State Division of Tourism’s EDA areas of focus: outdoor recreation, international tourism, and travel trade including Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), amateur sports and group travel. 

Projects to be funded will create an economic impact by increasing tourism in their region and/or throughout New York State through one or more of the segments in the areas of focus, thus amplifying the Division of Tourism’s tourism promotion efforts under the EDA grant.

New York State will concentrate on sectors most in need of help and/or representing the most promising opportunity for growth to restore New York State to its previous record tourism levels and help it reach new heights. Those three core areas of focus for New York State’s EDA work are:

1. Engaging the travel trade: Pursue MICE tourism, amateur sporting events and group tour business through sales and marketing efforts that encourage travel professionals to choose New York State for their clients and customers. Especially since New York State in recent years has spent billions of dollars to upgrade airports, convention centers and other infrastructure, now is an ideal time for the state’s Division of Tourism to present a strong and unified message—under the iconic I LOVE NY logo—that New York State is the best place for meetings and events of all types and sizes.
    
2. Promoting international tourism: As borders reopen, keep New York State top of mind and maximize the pent-up demand for travel with international consumers from our key feeder markets: Canada, UK, Germany and Australia. In addition to New York State’s ongoing business-to-business work to have tour operators and travel agents in these markets add New York State destinations to their offerings, efforts will be made to increase interest by reaching out to consumers more directly.
    
3. Promoting outdoor recreation destinations and activities: Maximize the trend of increased outdoor tourism and convert first-time users of New York State’s outdoor recreational assets to regular guests. At the same time, create broader awareness of lesser known and visited outdoor destinations to help redirect visitors from more crowded assets, and improve the visitor experience with increased programming and staff support while ensuring the long-term preservation of natural assets for continued, sustainable visitation.

The complete New York State EDA Tourism Partner Sub-Awards Grant Program Guidelines are available here.

For more information about the New York State EDA Tourism Partner Sub-Awards Grant Program, please contact New York State Division of Tourism, Tourism Grants staff at [email protected].