At the beginning of this month, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT) announced the Travel and Tourism Recovery (TTR) Grant Program. These grants are dedicated to campaigns and initiatives that increase consumer spending, support local businesses, and advance community recovery efforts to support businesses in Massachusetts. Funding from TTR Grants may be used for adapting programming to cope with COVID-19, administrative expenses, and efforts to plan and develop creative solutions to adapt the tourism and hospitality sector to a post-pandemic environment. Local, regional, and statewide organizations will be able to strengthen tourism recovery and increase non-resident visitation to Massachusetts with this grant funding.
The grant program for fiscal year 2022 has been funded at $4,000,000 by the Tourism Trust Fund. Travel and Tourism Recovery grants are available in three levels of funding:
- Under $50,000 (Level 1)
- Between $50,000 and $100,000 (Level 2)
- Between $100,000 and $150,000 (Level 3)
Applications are open now and due January 19, 2022. Eligible applicants must meet the following criteria:
- A public agency, municipality, or nonprofit organization incorporated in Massachusetts with 501(c)3, 501(c)4, 501(c)5, 501(c)6, status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that does one of the following: Produces, promotes, or presents tourism attractions and activities for the public and/or provides public access to physical collections and exhibits.
- Organization must be located in Massachusetts and in operation for at least two consecutive years since January 2019.
- Agency must be in good standing with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and city/town: Must be current on all taxes due through December 31, 2020; and have active and valid state licenses/registrations, if applicable.
- Organizations previously awarded MOTT TTR Grant funding may not receive more than $150,000 total for FY21 and FY22.
For more information, or to start an application, please visit: https://www.mass.gov/forms/fy22-travel-and-tourism-recovery-grant-program.