The Virginia Tourism Corporation has received a $50 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) appropriation by Gov. Ralph Northam and the Virginia General Assembly to assist in the revitalization of Virginia’s tourism industry with financial resources to overcome the negative impact of COVID-19 and support attracting the visitor to destinations across the state, VTC announced last week.

VTC will direct a majority of these funds to the 133 Virginia localities through the ARPA Tourism Recovery Program to be designated for tourism marketing, media, public relations, sales and product development for their respective destinations. Available funds will be allocated to each county and independent city based on the relative share of the locality to total state tax revenue attributable to tourism in 2019, from VTC’s annual Economic Impact of Visitors in Virginia report completed by the US Travel Association.

Localities will be encouraged to work with its destination marketing organization...