The city of Vancouver is accepting grant applications for tourism and cultural enrichment projects through Sept. 30.
The grants are for event and festival organizers and tourism promoters. Chosen applicants will receive funding to use in 2025.
“What the committee is seeking to do, is make sure that our tourism dollars through this program are having a broader impact on the whole Vancouver community,” Deputy Economic Development Director Chris Harder said.
The money for the grants comes from a tax on overnight stays at hotels and motels in Vancouver. The lodging tax typically generates about $3 million a year, he said.
Half of the funds go toward the downtown Vancouver Convention Center and half go to the city’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, which awards grants for projects based on criteria and state code regulations, including size of attendance, where attendees are coming from and lodging determination.
“We’ve redesigned the program, and in previous years, it was just that we had grants, and here’s what they could be used for,” Harder said. “We tried a little bit more structure around it in terms of various grant categories. This is a bit of a pilot this next year.”
This year’s grants will go toward four categories: cultural enrichment, large festivals, ongoing tourism promotion and one-time tourism marketing.
Applicants will be chosen based on their project’s alignment with the city’s 2023 to 2029 strategic plan core values. One of the values is livability with a sense of belonging and pride. The other values are sustainability and resiliency, innovation, equity and inclusion, and trust and relationships.
“We’re looking to fund programs or events or festivals that have an economic impact and bring visitors into our community, where they spend at small businesses, in hotels or lodging facilities,” Harder said.
Projects can also show a connection to Vancouver’s Destination Master Plan. “This plan is intended to serve as a 10-year framework to guide tourism strategy, investment, and opportunities for community partners and business leaders, and provide a common vision for the future of tourism in Vancouver,” the plan states.
The committee is also looking at how the projects will extend tourism past the typical busy seasons and increase visitation to the city.
“As we went through this process, it was important to the (Lodging Tax Advisory Committee) that these decisions aligned with broader city goals around things like climate change or environmental sustainability,” Harder said. “We wanted to make sure that the dollars that were coming in were going towards programs or events that would have the right impact.”
