The Twentynine Palms Tourism Business Improvement District held their meeting yesterday at Twentynine Palms City Hall to approve special event grants. With $200,000 in grant funds TBID will award to local event planners, City Hall was packed with entrepreneurs hoping to be approved for their applications.
While not at all local, the first agenda item to be approved was Discover Inland Empire Ultimate Playground Global Co-Op, who asked the Board for $3000 a month for 6 months to be part of an international tourism network, where “Visit 29 Palms” will be included in their global welcome centers and travel campaigns. In partnership with Amerilink, the Global Roadshow in Mexico, Central America, and Asia/China there will be an interactive platform designed to engage and motivate travel agents and tour operators to sell “Visit 29 Palms” TBID hotels and tour packages to increase its visibility, generate new business relationships.
The Board approved a robust list of local event planners to be awarded grant funds, including 29 Palms Book Festival ($20,000), 29 Palms Queer Film Festival ($5,000), Vacation Races Joshua Tree ½ Marathon ($20,000), Art Tours After Dark ($3000), and the Area 29 UFO Festival ($3000). Freedom Daze, which is the proposed next step for the Morongo Daze music festival to take place at Freedom Plaza, was also approved ($20,000).
The Board stated they allocated the funds by putting each proposal through a list of uniform criteria, then scored each application accordingly, with the Twentynine Palms Book Festival receiving the highest score.
