Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Thursday more than $850,000 in grant funds to promote tourism initiatives in the state, including $50,000 for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation to promote a packaged ticket deal for the area’s historic attractions.
The grants are part of the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s Marketing Leverage Program. JYF will receive $50,000 from the state to promote America’s Historic Triangle Marketing Program, which is a packaged ticket to five area attractions: Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Settlement, the Yorktown Victory Center, Historic Jamestowne and the Yorktown battlefields, said JYF Media Relations Manager Debby Padgett.
“It’s a very important program,” Padgett said. “It promotes the destination as a whole, because it involves various parts of the destination. It’s a great partnership program. It encourages people coming to this area to experience the entire destination.”
Padgett said 24,572 tickets were sold last year by the program, which partners JYF with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Preservation Virginia and the National Park Service. The program came into existence in 2004.
The grant program providing the $50,000 of funding to JYF was created to help local and regional tourism entities attract more visitors to their respective areas. The announcement of the grant winners comes on the heels of McAuliffe’s announcement that tourism brought $21.5 billion to Virginia in 2013, including more than $1.1 billion to the Historic Triangle.
“These grants equip local tourism businesses with the tools they need to stay competitive,” McAuliffe said in a news release announcing the grant winners. “The Marketing Leverage Program grants help support and grow a robust and diversified new Virginia economy and encourage strategic marketing of tourism products and businesses across the Commonwealth, generating revenue and jobs.”
No other Historic Triangle entity was on the list of grant recipients. The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News received $10,000 to promote its programming.
JYF oversees the Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center, which will become the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown when work is complete for a new building.
