COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Experience Bryan College Station works to promote tourism daily, and recently, facilitated grants totaling almost $650,000 to events held in Bryan-College Station.
The Hotel Occupancy Tax Grant, or "HOT" grant has been around since 2013 and is gathered from taxes on local hotel room stays.
“The grant was originally created because the Texas 4H Round Up that’s here every summer had been here for more than 70 years. It decided to leave one year, and one of the biggest reasons why was rising costs within the community for venue space,” said John Friebele, the Sales & Marketing VP for Experience Bryan-College Station.
So the twin cities got together with Experience B-CS to create the hot grant, encouraging events like theirs to come, or come back to the area.
“It’s grown significantly since its origination. This last fall, we awarded almost $650,000 to 41 events and those account for approximately 35,000 room nights that are coming into the community,” Friebele said.
Grant applicants are judged how many visitors they can bring to the area, but aside from promoting a cycle of tourism to the community, what does that mean for people in our area?
“When people and events come to our community, they of course spend money ... the sales tax goes to the general fund for each city. So these visitors are adding to our community pots that can be used for things like roads and security... they’re providing jobs to the community especially during times where students might not be here.”
Events have until March 15, 2020 to apply for the hot grant’s next application period opening in January.
“We certainly want to see more events coming to Bryan-College Station. We’ve had huge hotel growth and we have the room to accommodate people. This grant is one way to do that,” Friebele said.
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