Update on Tourism Enhancement in Hernando County: Event Advertising Grants, Mermaid Trail growth and extra

Tammy Heon, Manager of Tourism Development for Hernando County gave a presentation masking grants, regional tourism sector stats and the growth of the mermaid path at the December 14th assembly for the Board of County Commissioners.

She began by introducing 8 grant awards she was bringing ahead of the commission to be approved. These grants are Tourism Advancement Committee (TDC) marketing grants for particular functions. Events vary from just one of the longest working activities in Hernando County, Artwork in the Park, which will be celebrating its 37th yr this year To a rather new party, the Central Florida Sportsman Expo. Heon shares, “We had a history of 10 apps for these grants this calendar year, two have due to the fact withdrawn owing to alterations in their organization. So, we have awarded these eight grants, totaling $17,500 and we are here for the Commissioner Board to approve people.”

These grants are advertising and marketing grants, exclusively they are reimbursement grants for promoting. So, those awarded will submit all their advertising and marketing bills with proof of payment immediately after the celebration is held. They also have to give a report on how their pageant/event went and from there they will be reimbursed. A motion was created by Commissioner Narverud and a 2nd by Fee Holcomb. It passed unanimously.

Next, Heon shared some of the Tourism Development’s successes and excitements over the past 12 months. Heon states, “It’s been a strange yr about in this article with tourism, but we have had a excellent year no matter. We have loved all of the rewards of getting an out of doors recreation destination all through the pandemic. Some of the points I utilized to consider were a bit of a minus for us were being not owning a large team enterprise or a significant international element to our marketing and advertising or visitation. Currently it’s a huge as well as mainly because we didn’t have any of that to reduce and corporations that did get rid of that style of company are however suffering.”

Heon shared that Hernando County just had a report year of tourism enhancement collections. TDT revenues this calendar year is $1,527,068 Which is up 39.7%. As of Oct 2021, resort occupancy is up 28.2% and the typical everyday level to date is $95.24,…