Travel Council issues $2.4 m
Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber gets $260,000 for marketing
By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer
The primary promoter of tourism in the Wood River Valley is signifi-cantly richer this week, thanks to a state-levied tax on lodging and campground rentals.
The Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau on Thursday, July 29, was awarded a $260,000 marketing grant from the Idaho Travel Council, a private-sector advi-sory panel convened under the state Department of Commerce.
The allocation was among $332,000 in grants issued to agencies that promote tourism in central Idaho.
The Hailey Chamber of Commerce received a $13,000 grant and the Stanley-Sawtooth Chamber of Commerce was awarded $25,000. The Salmon Valley Chamber of Commerce was issued an additional $17,000 and the Challis Area Cham-ber of Commerce received $5,000.
All told, the Idaho Travel Council issued $2.4 million in public funds to 30 organizations statewide. Each organization is expected to use the grant dollars to fund promotional programs designed to market cities, towns or regions as a tourism desti-nation.
?The dollars these projects represent go way beyond an investment of $2.4 million,? said Commerce & Labor Director Roger Madsen. ?We?re seeing millions of dollars of tourism-infrastructure investment taking place throughout the state. This industry holds tremendous potential for economic development and job creation.?
Carol Waller, executive director of the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber, said she is ?pleased? by the grant. Waller noted that she believes the funding which will be applied in the organization?s 2004-2005 fiscal yearis well deserved.
?We?re the economic engine of our region,? she said.
Waller said the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber requested $275,000 from the Travel Council but like many other organizations saw its funding request cut.
The $260,000 from the council will inevitably be a major part of the Chamber?s 2004-2005 budget, which goes into effect in October. The draft Chamber budget estimates revenues for the upcoming year at approxi-mately $1.57 million.
Waller is still awaiting final ap-proval of funding requests made to the cities of Sun Valley and Ketchum, which use local option tax revenues to promote the Chamber?s marketing efforts.
The Travel Council awards its funds through the Idaho Regional Travel and Convention Grant Pro-gram, which was started in 1981. The program is funded by the state?s 2 percent lodging tax on hotel, motel and private-campground rentals.
Forty-five percent of the lodging-tax revenue is used to fund state programs that promote Idaho?s tourism industry. The remaining amount is allocated to chambers of commerce, convention and visitor bureaus and other non-profit tourism-promotion groups.
The Idaho Travel Council?an eight-member, private-sector advisory board appointed by the governor?oversees the allocations.
Brent Gillette, senior sales executive for Sun Valley Resort, is the council representative for the central Idaho region.
