PARKERSBURG, WV – Greater Parkersburg Convention & Visitors Bureau President Steve Nicely announced the bureau will receive $417,635 in matching grant funds in 2008 from the Matching Advertising Partnership Program that is administered by the West Virginia Tourism Commission.
The grant program provides matching funds for innovative and effective direct advertising projects that increase visitation and travel expenditures in West Virginia. Twenty-nine tourism entities - including CVBs, special events, and individual destinations - submitted grant proposals to the Tourism Commission for approval at their meeting last week.
The local CVB received the third largest overall tourism grant and the single largest CVB grant in the state. The bureau must match the grant funds dollar-for-dollar for its 2008 marketing and advertising campaign.
“We received nearly half a million dollars to go towards marketing and advertising for tourism in and around Parkersburg. This represents a significant increase over the grant award for 2007 and is due in large part to the hotel/motel tax increase,” Nicely said. “We are thankful to the Wood County Commission and the cities of Parkersburg, Vienna and Williamstown who are supporting the local tourism industry through the increase. The combination of the hotel tax increase, additional revenue from our partners, and more state grant funds will allow us to market the area through multiple new initiatives in the coming year.”
This past summer the hotel-motel tax in Parkersburg, Vienna, Williamstown and Wood County was raised from three percent to six percent. Governor Joe Manchin signed legislation to allow counties to raise the hotel occupancy tax to a maximum of six percent. Cities had previously received authorization to increase the hotel occupancy tax, but most waited until the counties had the same opportunity to implement the increase. State code requires at least 50 percent of the hotel-motel tax go to the promotion of tourism.
The Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitors Bureau was organized in 1985 and is an independent, nonprofit corporation dedicated to strengthening the area's economy by marketing Greater Parkersburg as a destination for leisure travel, group tours, meetings and conventions. The bureau is devoted to providing appropriate services for visitors and its partners.
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Posted on: December 17, 2007
