DENVER — The Colorado Tourism Office (CTO), a division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), announced last week that its Marketing Matching Grants program awarded more than $569,000 in grants to 16 Colorado organizations, from across the entire state, to aid in their marketing efforts.

The Tourism Marketing Matching Grant program provides financial support for tourism marketing and promotional campaigns, with a maximum grant amount of $40,000. The grant operates on a 2-to-1 match basis, meaning that for every $1 contributed by the grantee, the CTO provides $2 in matching funds.

In a first-ever collaboration, Visit Pagosa Springs and Visit Alamosa are partnering to promote south central Colorado, connecting into southwest Colorado. The Bridging Regions marketing campaign connects the Mystic San Luis Valley and Mountains and Mesas regions. The project targets specific key international audiences into the area. This campaign will allow the destinations to highlight an area of Colorado that features many aspects that would be interesting to an international traveler, including Great Sand Dunes National Park, Wolf Creek Pass, Chimney Rock National Monument, hot springs and the uniqueness of each destination.

According to Visit Pagosa Springs Executive Director, Jennifer Green, “both destinations have prioritized growing international visitation and we understand the strength of working together to promote our destinations to reach a unique audience. Alone, our destinations can only do so much with international marketing, this collaborative effort expands our reach that aligns with the international traveler.”

Kale Mortensen, Executive Director of Visit Alamosa explained, “A combined advertising campaign will allow us to promote an “off the beaten path” segment of Colorado for many international travelers. We are focusing efforts on the strongest markets for both destinations. We are excited about creating new itineraries and a marketing campaign that ties together both destinations seamlessly to improve the visitor experience.”