The City of Auburn provides grant funding for the promotion of events and activities that encourage, welcome, and entertain tourists and visitors.
The grants are funded through local and state hotel motel excise taxes collected on accommodations within the city of Auburn. Grants are awarded annually by the City Council based on the recommendations of the Auburn Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.
The Auburn LTAC is accepting applications for 2018 grant funding. Applications will be due no later than 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1. Grant recipients will be announced approximately in February 2018.
For questions regarding the 2018 LTAC grant requirements and process or to request an application, please contact Lorraine Chachere, Tourism Coordinator at 253-876-1978 or lchachere@auburnwa.gov.
About the program
• The funding is allocated to activities that promote tourism to generate overnight guests to Auburn.
• Activities, which will be considered for funding include activities, operations and expenditures designed to increase tourism. Specifically, lodging tax grants can be used for marketing and operations of special events and festivals designed to attract tourists.
• The expected outcome of such activities would be to increase economic activity during the funding year and subsequent years by increasing the number of guests lodged in the area, additional meals, shopping at local retail businesses and the availability and accessibility of tourism related facilities.
• All recipients of lodging tax revenue, regardless of what the revenue is to be used for, must submit a report to the municipality describing the actual number of travelers generated. These reports are due a week after the event or activity to be eligible for reimbursement.
Eligibility: who may apply?
• Convention and visitors bureaus
• Destination marketing organizations
• Nonprofits, including main street organizations, lodging associations or chambers of commerce and businesses
• Municipalities
Application process
• Applications may be submitted by any organization, group, or business (not-for-profit, municipality, etc.) interested in promoting tourism in Auburn.
• Selected applicants may be invited to provide an oral presentation to the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC).
• Committee recommendations are completed and submitted to the City Council for consideration.
• Monies are distributed as reimbursement and contingent upon the recipient completing an after event report, which documents how many overnight visitors the event brought to Auburn, no later than a week after the proposed event.
