
The Idaho Travel Council distributed more than $5 million in grants this summer to nonprofits in seven regions, as well as statewide, to help further promote travel and tourism in Idaho.
Grants ranged from more than $1 million to the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, including the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau, to $26,000 for the Lemhi County Economic Development Association. Statewide grants, amounting to almost $300,000, were awarded to the Idaho Lodging & Restaurant Association, the Idaho Outfitters & Guides Association, the Idaho RV Campgrounds Association, and the Idaho Ski Areas Association. The Boise award was the first ever over $1 million, said Matt Borud, chief marketing and innovation officer for the Commerce Department.

The Travel Council received 28 applications and gave out 27, Borud said. The only applicant that didn’t receive a grant was the Meridian Chamber of Commerce, which instead was funded through the Southwest Idaho Travel Association, he said. Each of the state’s tourism regions except Region 7, which includes Sun Valley, have a regional travel organization to help promote the region, and sometimes it is easier for a nonprofit to work with a regional entity, he said.

Tourism brings in more than $4 billion annually, making it Idaho’s third-largest industry, said Carrie Westergard, executive director of the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau. Westergard said tourism employs more than 14,000 people in the Boise area alone. State Tourism development activities are paid for by a 2 percent tax paid by travelers, collected by hotel, motel, vacation rental, and private campground owners, according to the Commerce Department. For fiscal year 2018, which ended July 1, that amounted to $12.4 million, an increase of 11.22 percent over the previous year, Commerce said.
Of that amount, 45 percent is used for statewide programs targeted to international and domestic consumers, tour operators, travel agents, and travel journalists, while another 45 percent is distributed to communities through the grant program. The remaining 10 percent pays for administration of the Tourism Development division, Commerce said.
Grant awards for each of the seven regions in Idaho are based on how much lodging money is collected in each region. Region 3, stretching from Nampa to McCall and including Boise, collected $4.6 million, Westergard said. The $1,037,685 that Boise received, a 12 percent increase over the previous year, was actually less than the organization requested, she said.
The Boise bureau will use the money for items such as attending trade shows to attract meeting planners, advertising the city to business and leisure travelers, and digital advertising to all 20 nonstop flight destinations from the Boise Airport, Westergard said. The group has also been working with about 30 travel journalists around the country, annually visiting cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Denver, and New York to meet with journalists there. “That sometimes takes a few years to have results,” she said. Sporting events also have a big economic impact — up to $15 million in the case of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, she said.
The state division is particularly interested in tourism efforts that drive greater national awareness around Idaho, Borud said. “We’re at a pretty significant disadvantage from a budget perspective,” he said. “Oregon and Utah run very big programs.” Tourism in Oregon brings in $11.8 billion, while tourism in Utah brought in $8.4 billion in 2016, according to the states’ respective tourism departments. “When people are exposed to Idaho, they are much more inclined to want to visit,” he said.
Idaho, particularly Boise, has been on a long list of best-of tourism destinations recently, Borud said. “’Northwest’s best-kept secret,’ ‘the West’s best-kept secret’ – that theme just keeps emerging,” he said. “We’re pleasantly surprised by the continual very positive, very authentic stories and representation of the state.”
That includes recent stories in the national news after a herd of 118 goats wandered through a Boise neighborhood. “That was hilarious,” Borud said. “Maybe it’s something we should do something with.”