Applications for the department’s tourism development grants officially open for FY24

SANTA FE – New Mexico communities looking to beautify public lands and grow tourism-related events in fiscal year 2024 are invited to apply for one of the New Mexico Tourism Department’s feature grant programs.

The application window for the Clean and Beautiful Grant Program, which provides grant funding for litter reduction and beautification projects to local governments, is open until Friday, April 14, 2023. In addition, applications for the Tourism Event Growth and Sustainability Program, which provides technical assistance and marketing support for tourism-related events, are open until April 21, 2023.

“We continue to see growing interest in these programs from destinations and local governments,” said Cabinet Secretary Jen Paul Schroer. “That interest is driven by a need to support some of New Mexico’s most essential resources and experiences that drive tourism and create economic opportunity – our public lands and our fairs, festivals and events.”

The Clean and Beautiful Grant Program funds projects and initiatives that help communities end littering, reduce waste, beautify communities, empower youth and increase program capacity. For FY23, NMTD awarded a program record $790,801 to 45 communities.

The Tourism Event Growth and Sustainability Program provides support in the form of sponsorship, cooperative advertising, and an event accelerator. For the program’s first year in FY23, NMTD supported six events through sponsorship, five events through cooperative marketing support and five events through the event accelerator. In total, $177,000 was awarded to participants in 12 different destinations for FY23.