Chamber receives $160,000 tourism grant

The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce it has received a $160,000 grant from the Idaho Department of Commerce Tourism Division to promote tourism in the greater Sandpoint area.

These funds will support the work being done by the Visit Sandpoint Tourism Council, a council of the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce. The Visit Sandpoint Council is comprised of 13 tourism facing businesses in the greater Sandpoint area and is responsible for promoting Sandpoint as a tourist destination outside of the region.

The chamber has received a tourism grant for over 12 years and has grown from the initial grant of $50,000 to the recently awarded $160,000. The stipulation of the state grant is all funds are required to be spent outside of the region to bring visitors into the Sandpoint area. Methods used to promote Sandpoint include print ads, digital media, Visit Sandpoint website, event promotion and videos. An annual Visitor Guide is produced each year highlighting the year’s events, as well as local hotels, restaurants and activities. 70,000 copies were distributed in 2017, 30,000 of which are inserted into the summer edition of Sandpoint Magazine.

Some of the publications used for advertising are Alaska/Horizon in-flight magazine, NW Travel, Outdoors NW, OutThere Monthly, Pacific NW Inlander, Metro News (Calgary Hearld), Swerve (Toronto Sun), Missoula Independent, Schweitzer Magazine, Miles USA, Travel 50, True West, Idaho State Travel Guide and several others. Visit Sandpoint also produced several videos in 2017 promoting Sandpoint as a tourist destination, which have received over 100,000 views. All local businesses can be a member of Visit Sandpoint by adding it to their chamber membership, this ensures a place in the annual Visitor Guide. The current Visitor Guide can be viewed as a flip book at visitsandpoint.com.

“Tourism constitutes approximately 35 percent of our total economy and plays a big part in the overall success and vitality of our area. In the eight years I have been writing the grant, visitations have increased and that is the overall goal of Visit Sandpoint and the chamber — to bring dollars into the community which in turn will be spent here by employees of those tourism facing businesses,” said Kate McAlister, president and CEO of the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce.

The grant is funded by a 2 percent lodging tax paid by travelers and collected by hotel, motel, and private campground owners. Here’s how the state funds are allocated:

- Forty-five percent goes to statewide programs that target international and domestic consumers, tour operators, travel agents, and travel journalists, as well as to film industry marketing.

- Forty-five percent is distributed to nonprofit local and regional tourism development organizations through the Idaho Regional Travel and Convention Grant Program.

- Ten percent is used for administration of Idaho Tourism.

According to the Department of Commerce Tourism website, tourism in Idaho is a $3.4 billion industry and employs more than 26,000 Idahoans and generates almost $500 million in local, state, and federal tax revenues.