Westmoreland boosts tourism with nearly $550,000 in grants to 44 institutions, groups

Westmoreland County’s tourism industry will get a boost of almost $550,000 next year with grants to 44 entities that draw tourists to the county.

They include organizations, festivals, museums, theaters, historical societies, hotels and restaurants.

Officials say the tourism industry is the second strongest economic driver in the county.

The money comes from a 5% county hotel tax.

Those involved in the industry “have put Westmoreland County on the national stage as a destination for virtually every type of recreation and entertainment,” Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew told representatives from the recipients of the grants and local tourism officials on Friday.

They gathered at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg for an official announcement of the grants, which were awarded by the Westmoreland County Tourism Grant Program.

Among them was Michael Tusay, executive director of the Latrobe Art Center in downtown Latrobe. The center received $8,000 for marketing.

“This grant helps us so much,” Tusay said.

Although the grants announcement was made Friday, the money will not be distributed until early January, said Ann Nemanic, executive director of GO Laurel Highlands. It must be spent within 2022. GO Laurel Highlands is the state’s official organization for marketing destinations in Westmoreland, Somerset and Fayette counties. It formerly was known as the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau.

The funding of tourist-related businesses typically is based on a 5% tax on rooms booked in hotels and other lodging venues in the previous year.

But because of last year’s pandemic restrictions, the distribution for 2022 is based on revenue generated from 22 months of tax on lodgings, said Anna Weltz, spokesperson for GO Laurel Highlands.

Distributions from the pre-covid year of 2019 were about $368,000.

“If it wasn’t for you bringing people here, we wouldn’t have a (hotel) tax,” said Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher.

Thirty-eight of the organizations received grants for marketing purposes, which are to be spent on attracting visitors from outside the county to explore Westmoreland’s attractions.

Nine applicants were not approved by the county tourism grant review committee.

GO Laurel Highlands took marketing dollars during the covid restrictions last year and sought to attract tourists from the Washington, D.C., and New York City regions, Nemanic said, under the premise that people in those regions wanted to leave the city to enjoy the outdoors.

Living Treasurers Wild Animal Park in Donegal received the most grant money — $25,000 for marketing and a $10,000 capital grant to create a concession stand to serve visitors who otherwise might travel outside the area to eat.

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg received a little more than $25,000 for “out-of-county focused marketing efforts” to support its Stephen Towns exhibition that opens Jan. 30, as well as two other exhibitions that it will present next year, said Claire Ertl, a museum spokesperson.

Greensburg Civic Theatre received a $3,555 grant for marketing and a $16,500 capital grant to purchase wireless microphones, which will enhance its productions, particularly the musical ones, said Margaret Ryan, a board member.

Friends of SummerSounds, a Greensburg organization that attracts about 30,000 people to the city for free concerts in St. Clair Park, received a $15,000 marketing grant for a multimedia effort to promote next year’s concerts. Gene James, founder of SummerSounds, said they were successful in marketing to communities along the Parkway East corridor in the Pittsburgh area.

“Twelve percent of our audience comes from outside the county,” James said.