New tourism advertising grant could be available as early as July

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - Governor Kristi Noem pledged on Wednesday, an even bigger push to encourage tourism.

In 2022, tourism brought in nearly $5 billion in state revenue and more than $300 million in tax revenue. Now Governor Kristi Noem has implemented a new grant to help these local tourist attractions.

The tourism advertising promotion grant program was created to help market South Dakota to outside the state.

The goal is to bring more people to the Mount Rushmore State and encourage them to visit more attractions.

“This is going to be a grant and funds that will be made available to those entities in South Dakota that are out there marketing our tourism industry,” Governor Noem said.

The state plans to give out more than $200,000 to continue promoting South Dakota, outside tourism season. The money came when the state reallocated funds from other departments.

“We’ve met several times internally, we’ve got the parameters of the program, now it’s just getting it on paper, getting it designed, and getting it out to the industry,” said State Secretary of Tourism Jim Hagen.

The hope is to be able to have applications open to advertising and marketing agencies by the middle of July.

Copyright 2023 KOTA. All rights reserved.