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Boise receives $536,300 to help promote tourism

Boise Convention & Visitor´s Bureau was awarded $536,300 Friday by state tourism officials to promote convention travel and tourism opportunities in Boise.

Michael Journee
The Idaho Statesman

The annual award was part of $2.3 million in grants given out by the Idaho Travel Council to 35 regional travel committees, chambers of commerce and other non-profit travel promotion organizations across the state.

The Boise Convention & Visitor´s Bureau´s portion was the largest given to a single organization, according to the Idaho Department of Commerce.

“We use it for all of our marketing programs for bringing new conventions and other business to Boise,” said Bobbie Patterson, executive director of the Boise Convention & Visitor´s Bureau.

Patterson said the largest portion of the money, $192,000, will be used for promoting Boise as a convention destination in a number of convention trade magazines and other media.

Another $50,000 will be used to help promote Boise convention business through community events like the Humanitarian Bowl and the Albertsons Boise Open golf tournament, Patterson said.

Other uses include sending representatives to convention trade shows, bringing potential convention clients to town, direct mailings promoting Boise´s convention facilities, Patterson said.

The grant accounts for about 35 percent of the Boise Convention & Visitor´s Bureau annual budget, Patterson said. Revenues from the Greater Boise Auditorium District´s 4 percent tax levied on hotel and motel rooms rented in Boise make up the rest.

A number of other southwest Idaho tourism-related organizations received money from the ITC Friday. In all, travel and tourism-related organizations in Ada, Adams, Boise, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, Valley and Washington counties received $872,419 in grant money, according to the Idaho Department of Commerce.

Each organization will use the ITC grant dollars to market cities, towns or the region as a tourism destination.

The state funds are generated by a 2 percent lodging tax paid by travelers on hotel, motel and private campground spaces.

More than $5 million is collected annually, with 45 percent returned to local and regional agencies and organizations for tourism promotion. Ten percent is earmarked for administration, and the remaining 45 percent is administered by the Idaho Department of Commerce for statewide promotion. The Idaho Travel Council is an eight-member private-sector advisory board appointed by the governor to oversee the administration of those funds.

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Michael Journee
[email protected] or 208-377-6465

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=45235

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