Visit Albuquerque offers tourism grants to local businesses and nonprofits

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Tania Armenta knows a thing or two about tourism in Albuquerque.

“Without a doubt, tourism is one of Albuquerque best economic development strategies,” she said.

Armenta is the president and CEO of Visit Albuquerque, and she says tourism brings about $2 million a year to the economy.

Now, Visit Albuquerque is offering tourism grants to local businesses and nonprofits.

“We’re really looking at ways that we can increase the volume of visitation here, continue to share the great story of Albuquerque, and so in that we have a variety of project types that could be a new experience, could be infrastructure, it could be something with arts and culture,” Armenta said.

There are two types of grants applicants may get: 

The “Innovator Grant” awards up to $50,000 and it’s a one-to-one match. If you put up $50,000, Visit Albuquerque would award $50,000.

The “Incubator Grant” awards up to $10,000 and needs two letters of support.

“The funding for this comes from the Albuquerque Tourism Marketing District, which was implemented just July 1 of 2022, unanimously passed by city council,” said Armenta.

The district is made up of 150 hotels who came together to create more overnight stays in the city.

“We know people have ideas about new offerings. Certainly, in coming from the pandemic, there’s been these new businesses that are popping up, and we want to support that we want to continue to add the vibrancy, the excitement,” said Armenta.

For more information and how to apply, click here.