Through this ARPA Tourism NOFO, EDA aims to assist communities and regions in recovery from the coronavirus pandemic’s significant negative impact on the travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation sectors.
EDA’s ARPA Tourism NOFO is designed to provide a wide-range of financial assistance to communities and regions to rebuild and strengthen their travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industry through various infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects. Under this NOFO, EDA solicits applications under the authority of the Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program, which is flexible and responsive to the economic development needs and priorities of local and regional stakeholders.
EDA’s travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation grants will be delivered through two components: (1) State Tourism Grants and (2) EDA Competitive Tourism Grants.
This NOFO posting is for the EDA Competitive Tourism Grants ONLY.
For EDA Competitive Tourism Grants, there are no application submission deadlines. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the publication of a new ARPA Tourism NOFO, cancellation of this NOFO, or all available funds have been expended. While EDA encourages eligible applicants to submit their applications as soon as possible, EDA strongly advises eligible applicants to submit complete applications no later than January 31, 2022 so that EDA can review and process the application in time to get a potential award in place prior to deadlines imposed by Congress. Submission by January 31, 2022 is not a guarantee of funding. Any award is subject to the availability of funds. See Section E of this ARPA Tourism NOFO regarding EDA’s review process.
For EDA Competitive Tourism Grants, eligible entities include a(n): (i) District Organization of an EDA-designated Economic Development District (EDD); (ii) Indian Tribe or a consortium of Indian Tribes; (iii) State, county, city, or other political subdivision of a State, including a special purpose unit of a State or local government engaged in economic or infrastructure development activities, or a consortium of political subdivisions; (iv) institution of higher education or a consortium of institutions of higher education; or (v) public or private non-profit organization or association acting in cooperation with officials of a general purpose political subdivision of a State. 42 U.S.C. § 3122(4)(A); 13 C.F.R. § 300.3.