By Emily Keller

tourism

Grande Prairie Regional Tourism to receive COVID-19 relief funding

Jun 23, 2020 | 6:18 PM

The Grande Prairie Regional Tourism Association (GPRTA), will be receiving a temporary COVID-19 relief fund from Travel Alberta and Western Economic Diversification (WD). Both Travel Alberta and WD will be giving $4 million in funding to various tourism organizations in Alberta.

Terry Dow, Executive Director of the GPRTA, says that they will be receiving part of the $4 million to help them address the impacts COVID-19 has had on local tourism.

“We are a membership-driven and membership-based organization, that relies on our members to invest funds into promoting the region, and so it’ll just make up those shortfalls, because we know that a lot of our tourism members, some of them haven’t even opened up yet, and we’re not collecting the DMS fee, which we normally would from our accommodation and campground partners.”

She says that many members have faced difficulties due to delays in opening as well.

“A lot of our members just have that small window within the summer months to make that money, if they’re a horseback riding provider or a whitewater rafter person, so there’s a small window of opportunity for them to make their money, and that was taken, for the most part, away from them.”

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Grande Prairie is one of nine Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in Alberta to receive funding, alongside Edmonton Tourism, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism and Tourism Jasper.

Dow does say that fortunately, they have not heard of any of their members needing to close.

She adds that their members and non-profit organizations are more than welcome to come to the GPRTA with questions and to seek help when applying to other funds that Travel Alberta has made available, such as the Cooperative Marketing Funding, as they reopen.