Area Businesses Awarded Tourism Marketing Grants

Nine area attractions were recently awarded matching tourism marketing grant funds from the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation’s (EDC) Tourism Division.

The grants are a service offered by the Tourism Division each year to enhance the marketing efforts of area tourism related businesses. Through the program, eligible applicants can request up to $1,000 in matching funds to use in promoting their business or attraction to out of area visitors.

More than $4,500 in matching funds were awarded in this current grant cycle to aid partners with signage, websites, printing of promotional materials and advertising. Businesses and organizations that received funding included: Virginia Museum of Natural History, Gallery 22, Martinsville-Henry County Heritage Center & Museum, Mini Par Driving Range, Mountain Valley Hops, Rucker’s Antiques Emporium, Studio 107, Rooster Walk and TheatreWorks Community Players.

"Being awarded the tourism marketing grant allowed us to pursue an aggressive advertising campaign to promote our Dino Day festival held earlier this year, which ended up being the highest attended, single-day event ever hosted at the museum," said Zach Ryder, marketing and public relations manager at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

To promote shopping local, grantees are required to select local service providers for their projects, when possible. As a result, an additional six local businesses also benefited from the grant program during this cycle. They include: Casting Logos, Office Max of Martinsville, Quality Printing, Sanwell Printing, What’s Your Sign and the Martinsville Bulletin.

According to Jennifer Doss, director of tourism for Martinsville-Henry County, “Effective marketing is critical to the success of a business. We’re pleased to have had the opportunity to aid these businesses in enhancing their marketing efforts to generate additional tourism to the area.” 

The next cycle of funding for the Tourism Marketing Grant will open on July 1, 2016 and the application can be found online at www.VisitMartinsville.com/grant.

The EDC’s Small Business Division also funds a separate, but similar marketing co-op grant specifically for small businesses in the area. In addition to financial assistance, the EDC offers technical assistance in marketing though workshops. The EDC’s Small Business Division will host “10 Key Marketing Strategies for Small Business” on June 15 at the New College Institute. The free workshop will be held from 12 – 2 pm and participants can register by calling 276.403.5940.