CAIRO – The city of Cairo announced today that it has received a Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant of US $ 18,616.99 from Explore Georgia, the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) state tourism bureau. The Explore Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant program supports marketing efforts to aid the recovery of Georgia’s tourism industry from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city of Cairo was one of 34 tourism companies in 27 counties that received a total of nearly $ 1.5 million in recovery marketing grants under this one-time grant program.

Governor Brian Kemp and the General Assembly approved $ 1 million in the FY21 revised budget for tourism recovery. Due to the significant number of grant applications – from 58 organizations totaling nearly $ 2.5 million in funding applications – Explore Georgia contributed an additional $ 1 million from the state tourism marketing budget to fund as many grants as possible. The Explore Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing program also includes $ 500,000 in cooperative matching funds for a total of $ 2 million in recovery assistance.

As of the city’s budget year 21-22, which begins in July, the economic development department will be expanded to include a tourism manager who oversees this grant and the campaign. The proposed marketing campaign will cover the entire county and all attractions consisting of paid advertising on social media, video and print advertising, and the use of billboards.

“Our goal is to give Grady County and all of its attractions a huge boost by not just taking a regional approach, but expanding our reach to the entire tri-state area (Georgia, Florida, and Alabama) to attract visitors to eat, Shop, linger or live, ”said Alyssa Blakley, Marketing Director of the City of Cairo.

“Georgia is a beautiful state, and as we continue to recover, I look forward to working with our industrial partners to bring the incredible tourism benefits of the state to travelers around the world,” said Pat Wilson, Commissioner of GDEcD. “These grants are an important tool for our industry organizations, most of which are small businesses, to begin their recovery efforts. We are committed to rebuilding the travel and tourism sectors across our state as Georgia’s diverse economy cannot fully recover until our tourism and hospitality industries are flourishing again. ”

The Explore Georgia Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant Program is designed to support areas of the state hardest hit by the decline in tourism and fund promotional activities to aid the travel industry’s recovery in 2021 from the greatest impact of visitor loss and its resulting Tourism spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we head into a summer where we anticipate a tremendous resurgence in domestic tourism and the economic prosperity that travel brings, funding for these grants recognizes the importance of delivering the diversity of visitor experiences across Georgia that are so Many Americans are close to home, ”said Mark Jaronski, Deputy Tourism Commissioner at GDEcD. “With a great collaboration with our destination marketing partners across the state, we believe we can be most effective in what is likely to be an incredibly competitive landscape by jointly promoting Georgia to the American public and complementing the Ready state’s tourism recovery campaign. To adjust. Georgia.”

Applications were assessed based on needs, quantified by the annual loss in hotel-motel excise tax surveys for the organization and the change in unemployment in the organization’s district. The scholarship holders received 100% of the requested funding.