Carson City awarded marketing grants by Nevada Commission on Tourism

The Nevada Commission on Tourism Wednesday awarded 89 marketing grants totaling $504,240.

That includes 25 grants to western Nevada and Carson City governmental and nonprofit groups totaling $132,295.

The largest of the grants on the list was for $20,000 with most coming in under $10,000 for efforts to help rural communities promote and market their tourist attractions. They range from promoting bicycle racing events to trail building and environmental research to website construction and supporting the Jazz and Beyond Music Festival and the Carson Farmer’s Market.

One of the largest in the Reno-Tahoe area is to the Carson Valley Visitor’s Authority to develop a comprehensive tourism economic impact study and analysis. The purpose is to provide the authority with data to create a more strategic, targeted marketing campaign to draw tourists. That project was awarded $10,050.

The Carson Convention and Visitors Bureau was awarded $7,500 for a campaign to develop better maps, descriptions, pictures and video for the outdoor recreation section of the VisitCarsonCity website.

The bureau also won a $3,500 grant to produce a testimonial video showcasing artists of the Great Basin on the Carson City Arts & Culture website.

Another $5,000 will pay to market the Brewery Arts Center’s outdoor concert series. BAC also will get $2,500 to help pay for video production of the TEDxCarsonCity videos. The videos produced for this past year’s event were viewed by 1,141 people in 31 countries around the world.

The Northern Nevada Railway Foundation was awarded $3,250 for a marketing program to draw more riders to the V&T Long Line. Specifically, the money will help produce high quality video to draw visitors to events in Virginia City.

Piper’s Opera House won two grants of $5,000 apiece. One will produce a marketing video designed to draw Chinese visitors to a unique tour highlighting the arts and heritage of the Chinese in this area. The second produces brochures documenting the acclaimed art colony that developed in Virginia City during the mid-20th Century.

The Lake Tahoe Visitor’s Authority won two grants, a $6,000 award will help with digital advertising and social media for the AMGEN Professional Cycling Race and a $15,000 grant will promote events at South Lake Tahoe including the Harvey’s Outdoor Arena concerts, multi-day festivals at Hard Rock Hotel and a variety of sporting and cultural events next summer.

The grants are available to governmental and nonprofit groups in areas outside the Reno-Sparks and Las Vegas metropolitan areas.

The goal of the grants is to increase tourism and, particularly, overnight stays in rural areas of Nevada.