The Cache Valley Visitor’s Bureau is now accepting matching fund grant applications aimed at boosting tourism from local non-profit groups.
LOGAN – The Cache Valley Visitor’s Bureau is seeking grant applications from local non-profit groups to support marketing and new event development activities.
“We want to do everything we can to support events taking place this year,” said Deb Harvey, the chair of the CVVB advisory board. “After such a devastating year economically and emotionally, we need events for visitors and locals alike to enjoy.”
The CVVB is offering multiple grants up to $1,500 in matching funds to support the efforts of non-profit groups to attract tourists to Cache Valley.
Harvey says those grants will be awarded to promote advertising of existing events outside the local area and the creation of new events that will entice visitors to spend at least one night in an area hotel.
The deadline for submission of the grant applications is Mar. 1.
Copies of the grant application form can be picked at the Cache Valley Visitor’s Bureau at 199 North Main St. in Logan or downloaded at www.explorelogan.com
“Our main goal is to increase hotel stays in Cache Valley,” according to CVVB director Julie Hollist Terrill. “So we’re looking for events and marketing that will bring people here overnight.”
CVVB officials say that preference will be given to grant applications for events to be held from Oct. 1 to May 15, which is traditionally a slow business period for local hoteliers.
But Harvey emphasizes that the CVVB is “happy to entertain applications for Cache Valley events any time of the year.”
Funding for the CVVB matching grants are provided by transient room taxes collected by Cache County hotels, which were hard-hit in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
In a June 2020 report to the Cache County Council, Terrill described the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the local hotel industry in a single word: “terrible.”
Terrill reported that the room occupancy rate in local hotels last spring had dropped to 27.4 percent, compared to 53.9 percent in April of 2019.
To make matters worse, Terrill said the average rate being charged for a room per night in April was only $68, compared to $90 a night a year ago.
Another measure of success in the hotel industry is revenue per room, which had dropped locally to $16.96 from $48.86 a year earlier.
CVVB officials explain that the matching grants for out-of-area marketing can be used to fund advertising and other publicity efforts outside Cache, Rich, Box Elder, Franklin and Bear Lake counties.
Similar grants have been made previously to the Top of Utah Marathon, the Cache Valley Center for the Arts, the Cache Valley Cruise-In, the Celebrate America festival and the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre.
CVVB grants for event development must be used to defray expenses to establish a new attraction, event, activity, festival or program to be held in Cache Valley.
Previous event-development grants have been made to the Gran Fondo, the Wasatch Back Relay, the Cache Bash softball tournament, the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous, the Fall Harvest Days at the American West Heritage Center and the Block Art and Film Festival.
More information about the CVVB matching grants can be obtained by calling 435-755-1890.