Colorado – Innovative Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Case Study

The below case study was developed through a NGA partnership with Oregon State University's Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy to research and assess the Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation award program at the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Read the full report here.

Project Overview

Grant: Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Support - Competitive Subgrants

Grant recipient: Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT)

Type of Grant: State Tourism Grant (noncompetitive)

EDA funding: $9,683,928

Total project funding: $9,683,928

Current project status: Beginning in mid-2022, Colorado's Outdoor Recreation Industry Office went through four rounds of application reviews to identify the Colorado State Outdoor Recreation Grant subawardees. The final round closed in 2023. Most of these projects are still being implemented.

What is unique, innovative: In preparation for receiving funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Travel Tourism & Outdoor Recreation (TTOR) program authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Colorado's Outdoor Recreation Industry Office (OREC) conducted an extensive listening tour in the summer of 2022, visiting about half the counties in the state. This outreach was hailed as being quite unique. They met with community and business leaders with the goal of hearing first-hand what they were experiencing in a world changed by the pandemic. Five key takeaways are summarized as follows:

• Coloradans love where they live - And this is because of the access to nature and outdoor recreation, and they often balance outdoor recreation with resource protection and developing affordable housing for workers.
• The outdoor recreation conversation is expanding - Stewardship and managing use on public lands are long-time priorities.
• There are so many opportunities for collaboration - between towns, counties, and even on the regional and/or state level.
• The outdoor industry is creative - During the listening tour, the OREC team heard a variety of inspiring ideas about how to put the funding to use.
• OREC can be a voice for the industry - The outdoor recreation industry is made up of several subindustries such as manufacturing, tech, and retail; many of which are small businesses. The best way to get a sense for what is going on is to visit those businesses, and share that information with other OEDIT divisions, other state agencies, and the Governor's office.

By the summer of 2022, based partially on input from the listening tour, OEDIT had created two new grant programs aimed at pandemic recovery using federal TTOR funds from EDA. By the end of September 2022, the OREC team had completed 13 site visits to 26 counties, hosted 12 community listening sessions, and met or reached some 400 people.

Takeaways on What's Replicable: In November 2021, the Colorado Governor's Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) received almost $9.7 million in funding from the non-competitive State Tourism Grant portion of the one-time EDA/ARPA/TTOR grant program after it was made available to states.

The award is being co-managed by two OEDIT divisions: 1) the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office (OREC), and 2) the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO). OEDIT allocated about half of the funds to OREC, and almost half to the CTO. OEDIT's Outdoor Recreation Industry Office is more commonly referred to as "OREC" for "outdoor recreation economy" - which is how it is referred to in this case study.

From the beginning, both offices took advantage of the opportunity to provide competitive subgrants to entities throughout Colorado, as many parts of the outdoor recreation and tourism industries were still in recovery. Colorado is one of only a few states that we are aware of (other states included New York and Kentucky) to fully distribute its non-competitive EDA TTOR state tourism grant through a mostly competitive subaward process to a multitude of diverse projects across the state. Colorado distributed its funds across 57 subawards ranging from $12,000 to $500,000 (average = $98,000).

Based on the funding received by the OREC Office, it introduced the Colorado State Outdoor Recreation Grant, a $3.9 million competitive grant program for outdoor recreation projects. Eligible projects included upgrades to infrastructure, technical and planning assistance, marketing and promotion of events and assets, and workforce development, all within the outdoor recreation industry. Applications were accepted on a rolling basis with quarterly review deadlines. The first deadline was June 30, 2022.

The Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) allocated the CTO portion of the EDA funds both competitively and non-competitively as listed here:

• CTO created the Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant, a $1.8 million competitive matching grant program, to support the economic recovery of the travel and tourism industry in Colorado through the execution of tourism marketing and promotional campaigns. Eligible applicants included nonprofits responsible for promoting tourism on behalf of a destination; Colorado cities or other political subdivisions of the state; EDA- designated economic development districts (EDDs); and Indian tribes. Applications were accepted June 2-August 1, 2022 and work on awarded projects continues through early 2025.
• CTO also allocated $2.4 million of the EDA funds toward international marketing and promotion over a 4-year period. International travelers are Colorado's highest value tourist, staying longer and visiting more areas of the state. During the pandemic, however, the international tourism spend in the state dropped 81% - from $1.8 billion in 2019 to $306 million in 2020.

This case focuses on OREC's outdoor recreation portion of the EDA TTOR funding. In early 2020, OREC was bracing for a significant economic downturn due to the pandemic which broke out March 2022, including budget cuts across state agencies. By July 2020, OREC had lost 33% of its operating budget, and as the staff were transitioning to a remote work environment, they were also postponing many programs including travel and outreach, grant making, trade shows and business support, and rural technical assistance initiatives. Therefore, given the strong emphasis on competitively allocating funds to communities, the remainder of the EDA grant funding to Colorado was focused on increasing grant administration capacity at the state level.

Background on the Project

As noted, OEDIT's outdoor recreation and tourism offices combined forces to jointly manage the $9.7 million EDA ARPA TTOR award. Each of these OEDIT offices is described here.

Outdoor recreation: The Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, or OREC, is a relatively new state office, being established in 2015, and then being signed into statute by Governor Jared Polis in May 2021. The OREC Office provides a central point of contact, advocacy, and resources at the state level for the diverse constituents, businesses, and communities that rely on the continued health of the outdoor recreation economy. OREC also encourages responsible outdoor recreation. More people than ever are using natural resources, and the state wants to make sure it is done right. Now being part of state statute helps ensure that there will always be people to steward the outdoor economy and protect its finite resources.

Approximately 92% of Coloradans practice outdoor recreation at least once every few weeks and some four or more times per week, according to the 2019-2023 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) report. Also, outdoor recreation plays an important role in Colorado's economy. According to the 2022 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA) data for Colorado, the following are some of the outdoor recreation economic benefits to Colorado:

• $13.9 billion in value added, a 2.8% share of the state's gross domestic product (GDP).
• 129,773 jobs, a 4.3% share of the state's employment pool.
• $6.9 billion in compensation, a 2.6% share of the state's employment compensation.

One of OREC's purviews is to advocate for the outdoor recreation industry. Working in tandem with other parts of OEDIT, OREC plays a role in attracting, retaining, and growing outdoor recreation businesses in the state. For example, OREC's Outdoor Industry Business Development program supports business development activity through research, partnerships, trade shows, and trade and investment missions. OREC also helps businesses with exporting internationally.

As an example, receiving the EDA TTOR funding allowed OREC to fund the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation to support development of the "OutdoorCO Lifestyle Vertical," a statewide outdoor recreation industry business alliance to promote the industry and attract new businesses to the state. This funding supports operating and contractual expenses related to business recruitment and marketing for Colorado outdoor recreation industry partners.

Tourism: Tourism is another powerful driver of Colorado's economy. Through local tourism departments and programs, it fuels business income and tax revenues that support everything from schools to transportation and municipal services. According to Dean Runyan Associates' 2022 report, The Economic Impact of Travel, Colorado travelers spent $27.7 billion, generating $1.7 billion in local and state revenues, reducing the tax burden for every Colorado household by $760.

The CTO helps increase traveler spending through the promotion of Colorado as a 4-season, 4- corner, world-class travel destination. CTO's vision is to empower the tourism industry by inspiring the world to explore Colorado responsibly and respectfully. The CTO accomplishes this goal mostly through a statewide collaboration with destination marketing organizations, local communities, and private businesses. Additional CTO activities have included: "Come to Life" marketing campaigns targeting national and international travelers; management of Colorado.com; 'Do Colorado Right' national and instate destination stewardship campaign; creation of CTO's Destination Stewardship Strategic Planning Initiative and operation of 10 Colorado Welcome Centers at major gateways to the state in collaboration with public and private partners.

Impact of the pandemic on Colorado travel industry: In 2020, due to the pandemic, US travel spending declined an estimated 36%. The Colorado travel industry was similarly affected, experiencing an estimated decline of 36.3% in travel spending, after record spending in 2019 of $24.2 billion. Despite a strong start in 2020, Colorado tourism - including ski resorts, indoor dining and events - all experienced hardship. Direct travel-generated employment experienced a loss of 31,700 jobs across the state, with the largest amount of job losses occurring within the accommodations and food services sector which lost 19,900 jobs.

EDA's TTOR opportunity - OREC portion: As of November 8, 2021, the EDA ARPA TTOR funding allowed OREC to establish its first competitive grant program - the Colorado State Outdoor Recreation Grant (COSORG) program. The COSORG program supports the outdoor recreation industry throughout Colorado to accelerate the recovery of communities that rely on the TTOR sectors. Six subgrant topics were identified for the competitive proposals:

• Workforce training that supports the travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industries, to improve the skills and job opportunities for workers, including Registered Apprenticeship Programs and other work and learn models. Grant recipients and their partners are encouraged to make connections with the American Job Centers that connect individuals to workforce training.
• Short-term and long-term economic development planning and coordination to respond to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the regional travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industry.
• Technical assistance projects to assist regional economies to recover from damage to the travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industries, including technical assistance to businesses, entrepreneurs, and small and rural communities to respond to changes to those industries brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Upgrades/retrofits to existing travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation infrastructure, such as convention centers, to increase travel/tourism activity or to make such infrastructure more functional under pandemic social distancing conditions (e.g., consistent with CDC guidelines). These activities can include general accessibility upgrades (e.g., disability access).
• Infrastructure projects that lead to long-term increases in tourist activity in a region, including to communities adjacent to National Park Service units, State Parks, National Marine Sanctuaries, or other natural destinations, and nature-based infrastructure projects and projects enhancing public access to outdoor recreational opportunities.
• Other uses to support the travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industries, as approved by EDA.

The scope of work for the subgrants covered a lot of ground and provided a great opportunity for entities of all sizes, types, locations, and goals in Colorado to engage with the state and access the EDA ARPA TTOR funding. Beginning in mid-2022, OREC went through four rounds of application reviews to identify the COSORG subawardees. The final round closed in 2023. Governor Polis, OEDIT and OREC leadership made the announcements for each new group of recipients.

Project Actors - State leaders, champions, stakeholders

Given the popularity of outdoor sports and recreation in Colorado, the state has many champions for these sectors - including Governor Polis - while certain leaders stand out in terms of their contribution to seeking and implementing the EDA TTOR funding.

Conor Hall is OEDIT's project manager for the overall EDA/ARPA/TTOR state tourism grant. He came to OEDIT in February 2022 as the new OREC Office director. At that time, the OEDIT executive director said, "Conor brings a wealth of knowledge in the outdoor space, government relations, consensus-building, and community development, all of which will be vitally important over the next several years as OEDIT works to deploy the $9.7 million EDA grant that OREC and the tourism office received." As program manager for the OREC Office, Matt Nunez also works closely on the state's EDA TTOR grant. In addition, the Colorado OREC Office works with a Colorado Outdoor Recreation Advisory Council.

Economic Benefits

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis' Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account data, which is provided at the state-level, reported that Colorado's economy was significantly affected by the pandemic. Outdoor recreation-related value added and employment in the state both fell by 26% in 2020. However, it takes longer for employment to recover than value added. While value added had rebounded by 2022, employment effects were still present.

Colorado's investment will serve as a model for other states interested in broadly distributing their large award across the state. This strategy enhanced the overall diversity of projects that complements the diversity of opportunities, sectors, and players in the outdoor recreation economy. Colorado's example provides great insights into planning, collaborating, and leveraging funds through community-identified needs and programs. This approach adds another example of how to strengthen economic resiliency with equity goals. These are all important actions as exemplified in the focus of other TTOR-funded projects in the country.

"Colorado's outdoor recreation economy was significantly affected by the pandemic…While outdoor recreation value added had rebounded by 2022, employment effects were still present at that time."

U.S. BEA Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account

OREC Workforce and Education Connections: The OREC Office has worked closely with numerous educational institutions in the state to ensure the outdoor recreation industry is considered in their program offerings, now numbering more than 65 certificate or degree programs offered by Colorado institutions. OREC also focuses on workforce development and securing the talent pipeline necessary to attract and retain outdoor recreation companies. Many of the EDA TTOR grants have provided professional development for students and workers as they prepare for or further their careers in outdoor recreation. As is evident, the TTOR subgrants will create new jobs, implement new post-secondary certificate programs, develop tourism and outdoor recreation apps, and launch campaigns promoting outdoor recreation as a career pathway, among other initiatives.

OREC's collaboration with Western Colorado University (WCU) in Gunnison, Colorado, had previously helped to make an Outdoor MBA program a reality - along with two annual OREC fellowships. Now, with the EDA TTOR grant, an OREC TTOR subaward is supporting the buildout of an outdoor industry engineering lab on the WCU campus. Funding is supporting the purchase of lab equipment and supplies for building testing equipment. This project is viewed as being a next step in making rural Colorado a hub for entrepreneurship and workforce development in the outdoor industry for years to come.

Another COSORG recipient is La Plata Open Space Conservancy (LPOSC) which is offering paid internship opportunities to students at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. LPOSC is a nonprofit charitable organization serving the southwestern part of the state by holding conservation easements on thousands of acres donated by landowners across multiple counties. The land offers resources such as open space, wildlife habitats, recreational parks, and historical and archaeological resources. The internships are providing job experience in conservation work, and the TTOR funding is supporting 14 interns, a GIS Program Coordinator, and GIS-related equipment and software. Program deliverables will include the completion of the fourteen 50- hour internships at LPOSC before March 2025.

The EDA grant is further supporting workforce development in the outdoor recreation industry by helping 75 high school students in Clear Creek County's School District to achieve certifications in wilderness first aid, avalanche safety, and swift water rescue. The goal of the program is to provide students with a well-rounded foundation from which they can enter careers in the outdoor recreation industry. Project expenses include certification course costs for 25 students each year from 2023 to 2025 in Wilderness First Aid (WFA), American Institute for Avalanche Research & Education (AIARE), and Swiftwater Rescue Technician (SWRT).

Colorado's EDA TTOR grant is also supporting youth apprenticeships. SOS Outreach of Colorado received funding to support 19 young people in its Career Development Program. The program kicks off with a paid 2-week skills intensive including workplace communication, mock interviews, resume writing, guest speakers, site visits and more. Following the intensive, those ages 6+ interview for summer apprenticeships with vetted partners in the outdoor recreation and tourism industries. The young professionals will begin to practice what they've learned in the workplace with duties such as customer service, product sales, inventory, and events. Teens receive a dedicated mentor throughout the entire program with consistent check-ins and feedback for growth.

Workforce development data, impact: OREC's most important metric for workforce development is the number of jobs supported, both directly and indirectly. OEDIT has collected reports from about half of its subawardees on the EDA grant. Based on only half of the grantee pool, OREC found more than 300 jobs were directly impacted through projects such as those described above.

This section identifies yet other benefits of the Colorado TTOR subawards using examples grouped according to these topics: equity and diversity; inclusivity and accessibility; resiliency and sustainability; community transitioning; and indirect impact of the subgrants.

Equity and diversity: In terms of diversity, 21 of OREC's subaward projects focus on underserved communities and populations, and most within this group are focused on minority youth. Some projects help Spanish speaking populations, and others leverage the outdoors to help people who have recovered from cancer. One of the grantees has led the charge on creating actionable health benefits and is continuing to promote these kinds of efforts. In Lake County (home of "Get Outdoors Leadville"), the funding is supporting a summit for the Spanish-speaking population and connecting them to the outdoors.

TTOR subawardee Colorado Mountain College (CMC) in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with a student body over 25% Latino. The HSI designation creates opportunities for grant funding benefiting all students. CMC is focusing on workforce development and - through an EDA TTOR subaward - is creating a Ski Industry Trade Certifications program. The funding will support wages for curriculum creation, along with associated travel and indirect expenses.

"We are committed to making the outdoors accessible to everybody in our community and that includes well-connected and accessible train systems."

Xavier Crockett, Director of Mesa County Public Health

Inclusivity and accessibility: TTOR subawardee Mesa County Public Health is developing a master plan for the Gunnison Bluffs and Old Spanish Trail network south of Grand Junction, a Colorado municipality of about 70,0000 people. Mesa County is the primary landowner in the trail area, with additional segments owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and private landowners. The current trail system was originally created through social ridership, rather than sustainable and inclusive trail planning and design. Mesa County Public Health is planning a trail system connection to an underserved neighborhood.

Resiliency and sustainability: Resiliency is another priority for the state TTOR grant, and this metric is being tracked in all the subawardee reports. At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, OREC is funding - through an EDA TTOR subgrant - support for the development of:

• A project for Digital Asset Mapping of Colorado's outdoor recreation businesses and resources. Completion of this project will serve as the bedrock of outdoor recreation community economic development initiatives statewide.
• A Sustainable Outdoor Product Design certificate program. This certificate program will be the first of its kind in Colorado, and the third in the U.S.

The EDA subaward funding will support personnel wages, operating expenses, and indirect costs for both of the above sub-projects.

Diversifying local economies: The City of Craig, the county seat in Moffat County in northwestern Colorado, is a coal transition community. The region's major employers-two coal-fired power plants and three coal mines-all announced they would be shutting down within the decade. Craig and Moffat County are prioritizing outdoor recreation and tourism as a basis for future economic development. In 2022, EDA provided the city $3.3 million through an Assistance to Coal Communities grant in order to support the build-out of a regional whitewater park along the Yampa River, and a neighboring community similarly got funding for a business park. The current EDA TTOR-funded project will allow them to hire a full-time Recreation & Events Coordinator. In addition to the whitewater park, the City of Craig is working to promote off-road and mountain biking, similar to how it's being done in Telluride, Colorado.

Indirect impact: An indirect benefit of the OREC TTOR subgrants is also being experienced. Several subawardees have leveraged their dollars from the state's TTOR grant to access even more funding. Two examples stand out in this regard:

• A TTOR project in rural Colorado is providing funding for renovating an athletic field, and this project has since attracted an additional $2.2 million. The project is supporting the installation of a 77,000-square-foot synthetic turf athletic field at Greenhorn Valley Community Park in Colorado City. The project was left unfinished in 2007 which has led to safety concerns as well as cancellation of community programs due to inadequate facilities. A community organization based in rural Colorado, called Valley First, is raising funds for much needed improvements in the region. Once completed, it is expected that the project will drive significant economic impact for an underserved part of southern Colorado.
• In the San Luis Valley region in south-central Colorado, the state's EDA TTOR grant funds the planning of bicycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure to advance recreation and active transportation initiatives. These plans occur within and between communities. The San Luis Valley communities are about 15 miles from one another, and since the 1970s, there have been community dreams of a cross-valley trail resembling a bicycle highway; this trail vision is called the Heart of the Valley Trail. An action plan for safer and more accessible pedestrian infrastructure will be the grant's final deliverable. The project is a collaborative effort between San Luis Valley Great Outdoor (SLV GO), private landowners, community partners, and local governments. Much of the $100,000 from EDA TTOR will support personnel costs, with the remaining funding going towards a preliminary environmental review, trail assessments, and administrative expenses. After receipt of the subaward from the state's EDA TTOR grant, projects in the San Luis Valley region have received further state and foundation dollars and have been able to hire more staff in a domino effect.

Special Considerations

Various factors that have arisen in implementing the Colorado COSORG grant program have related to the statewide need to become more familiar with a new federal agency and the challenges of standing up a new state grant program; these special considerations are summarized in this section.

Lack of local experience working with EDA: Many of the subaward applicants did not have experience working with this particular federal agency, EDA, before receiving this funding through the state, and they have faced a learning curve in terms of understanding the processes and requirements for receiving EDA awards. For example, the OREC subawards included some construction projects that presented new compliance requirements for which the subawardees needed to be updated on to manage their grants for those types of projects.

Capacity development for implementing a new grant program at the state level: Given that this was OREC's first grant program, one of the biggest issues has been putting into place the processes and people necessary to support the program. OEDIT has two people working on this EDA grant as a portion of Colorado's TTOR funding supports a program manager along with a grants compliance manager whose expertise has been called "super helpful."

Key Findings and Lessons Learned

By the summer of 2022, the umbrella agency OEDIT had designed and was offering two new grant programs aimed at pandemic recovery using the federal ARPA TTOR funds through EDA. Some of the findings and lessons for OREC have been the following, with some additional confirmation from the related CTO TTOR subgrants:

Use of a competitive process: The one-time EDA ARPA TTOR funding offered OREC the opportunity to offer the state's first competitive grants in outdoor recreation. Creation of a competitive program provided the opportunity to help some local governments, nonprofits, and universities in Colorado who were newer to planning efforts for outdoor recreation.

Outreach and awareness building: As a result of the listening tour, OREC had a new appreciation for the ways the Office could help catalyze projects across the state through the new EDA funding. Part of the reason for the listening tour was to raise awareness about the new federal funding. The tour did lead to an uptick in applications, especially in the communities that were visited.

Working with communities: Directing funds to Colorado communities was a priority in allocating funding from both the OREC COSORG program and the CTO Tourism Marketing Recovery Grant. Providing CTO's grant directly to communities that were still recovering was considered a particularly important strategy to help the state recover.

Gaining experience about federal procedures: Through both the OREC and the CTO grants, it quickly became apparent that many subawardees, particularly in more rural areas, lacked experience with federal grant requirements and compliance. As a result, OREC and CTO are still at this time working to provide significant technical assistance to subawardees on both federal and state grant compliance requirements.

Opportunities for nonprofits: As designed, the Colorado competitive subawards also provided a unique opportunity for nonprofits. The design of the program "left room" for some potentially larger subawards. Although the infrastructure grants were capped between $100,000 and $250,000, this was still a significant amount of funding for some nonprofits.

Partners: OREC is putting its collaborations and partnerships with universities to good use with the EDA TTOR funding. As a remarkable example with a benefit for small businesses, OREC is providing funds for the build-out of a major new engineering lab at the University of Colorado- Denver which will serve as a testing space for outdoor equipment for private manufacturers. Specifically, funding will allow for the purchase of major equipment pieces to be installed in an existing engineering space on campus. The university's College of Engineering has partnered with Outside Interactive Inc. to build a gear testing lab which will be accessible on a variable price scale to small outdoor recreation manufacturers who otherwise may not have access to equipment that can be tested for durability and weather resistance. The small businesses can pay a small fee to test their outdoor recreation equipment at the lab.

In summary, Colorado serves as a good example where the outdoor recreation industry and communities are mature. Supporting smaller value-added projects enhances the state's overall comparative advantage. The state's choice to take this approach with its EDA TTOR funding creates an exemplar for other states in similar situations.

Time Factors, Any other Guidance Necessary for Replication

There were many activities in Colorado leading up to the EDA TTOR award. In addition to the important listening tour, there were earlier EDA grants to Colorado:

• In January 2021, EDA awarded $2.4 million in CARES Act Recovery Assistance to CTO, paired with a $600,000 CTO match which supported direct assistance for 38 Colorado destinations and up to 21 tourism-related industry associations.
• In March 2021, EDA granted $2.3 million to OEDIT, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), and the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment (CDLE), along with the nonprofit Community Builders, for rural community planning and technical assistance (TA) support.

As a result of those EDA awards to Colorado, the state created and announced two new programs in March 2021. First, the CARES Act funding supported development of a Colorado Tourism Roadmap to Recovery, a new 5-year strategic statewide plan for the Colorado tourism industry to be implemented by CTO. Technical assistance was provided to support the tourism industry in adopting the statewide plans recommendations and focused on customized recovery work for regional collections of communities within tourism destinations that shared a common geography and visitor appeal.

Second, the EDA funding for rural community planning was called the Rural Resiliency & Recovery Roadmaps Program. Based on submitted applications, DOLA's Resiliency Office in partnership with OEDIT's Rural Office selected 16 rural jurisdictions to participate. The EDA grant was matched with almost $9 million from the state to provide TA. Through regular connections between the three state agencies' rural representatives (DOLA, OEDIT, and CDLE), the project resulted in a Recovery & Resiliency Roadmap that considered all of the economic and community development opportunities available to each community - including TTOR.

Read the full report on Innovative Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Awards, or additional case studies from: Hawai'i, Indiana, Maine, North Dakota, and West Virginia.

Disclaimer: This document was prepared by the National Governors Association using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070131 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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