By Julie Johansen
Emery County Tourism Director Adriana Chimaras requested approval for grants and services to promote tourism in Emery County at the commission meeting on Tuesday. Her first request was for an agreement between Emery County and Granicus for host compliance services. The utilization of these services would line up the Transient Room Tax licenses with business license fees and taxing.
There is no active monitoring and this company would provide these services for all of the cities in Emery County. Chimaras reported that a few other counties are using these services and find them beneficial. The cost is $10,335, 60% of which the country would pay while the cities would contribute the remaining 40%.
Her next request was approval to submit a Forever Mighty Grant application. This is an Utah Office of Tourism grant and is 2-1 match grant for $75,000 of which Emery County’s share would be $25,000. This would be used to promote responsible recreation with official billboards and “Keep It Swell” messaging. This grant application was approved.
An application for a co-op marketing grant was also approved. This grant would enable promoting tourism services such as motels and guide services. It would also pay for training for businesses, such as Big Mountain Lodge, to increase their marketing opportunities. Chimaras emphasized it would really help businesses in the Green River area.
Her final request was a letter of financial commitment from Emery County to Carbon County’s Forever Mighty Grant. This would be the first effort to combine tourism efforts for Carbon and Emery counties. The goal is to have visitors go from Price to western Emery County and down to the Moore cut-off road to Green River and back to Carbon County. They would be working on putting more money from businesses back into the local economy.
Chimaras explained that recreationists stay on the desert and contribute little to the economy, but tourists stay in motels and 10% of their money spent enters the local economy. “Events are a great way to tap into the taxes for the cities,” Chimaras said.
This request was also approved by the Emery County Commissioners.