Tooele County tourism will get a $146,000 boost from the state in 2017.
The Utah Board of Tourism Development approved marketing grants for three specific programs in Tooele County, according to Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne.
Country Fan Fest received a $73,000 grant, the Ford Performance Racing School $54,000 and Tooele County $19,000 to update its tourism website.
Country Fan Fest, the annual multi-day outdoor country music concert held at Deseret Peak Complex, will use the grant to market Fan Fest outside of the state with billboards, radio marketing and print advertising.
“Our ticket sales show that 13 percent of our people came from outside of the state from places like Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona and Colorado,” said Hal Hudson, president of Country Fan Fest. “With your [state tourism board] help, we believe we can grow the participation and eventually be self-funding.”
The Ford Performance Racing School will use its grant to increase redemption of the day-of training and driving at the Utah Motorsports Campus track, which is part of the package that comes with the purchase of a Ford performance vehicle, according to Dan McKeever, owner of the Ford Performance Racing School.
Many of the Ford customers that come to the racing school bring at least one other person with them.
Sometimes they bring their family and visit other places in Utah while they are here, McKeever said.
Milne, along with Mike Deaver, the county’s tourism consultant from State Street Partners, and John Cluff, chairman of the Tooele County Tourism Advisory Board, pitched the grant proposals to the state tourism board’s co-op marketing committee.
Owners from the Ford Performance Racing School and Country Fan Fest joined in that effort.
The grant requests included $100,000 for Country Fan Fest, $75,000 for the Ford Performance Racing School, and $25,000 for the county’s website.
“Receiving 78 percent of what we asked for was very successful,” Deaver said. “Considering the state had more requests than they had money available. Nobody got everything they asked for.”
The state received requests totaling $4.3 million for the co-op marketing grants and awarded $3.4 million, according to the state Office of Tourism.
The co-op marketing program is designed to leverage state funds for tourism by partnering with organizations to stretch marketing dollars to attract out-of-state visitors, according to Deaver.
Out of 16 cycles of grant applications for state tourism grants, Tooele County has only received one $16,000 grant in the past, according to Deaver.
“We are very excited to get these grants to help our tourism efforts,” Milne said. “We are thankful to State Street Partners and our local business partners that made this cooperative effort successful.”