Marietta allocates nearly $1M for tourism grants

The Marietta Welcome Center is receiving the largest allocation - $300,000 - among the tourism grants during the city’s new budget year. The center will use the money for a variety of marketing initiatives to promote the city as a tourism destination, according to Marietta Visitors Bureau Executive Director Amanda B. Sutter. (Courtesy of Marietta)

By Carolyn Cunningham

June 27, 2019

New requests of $379,000 for tourism grants have been approved by the Marietta City Council for the new budget year.

Additionally, $598,000 in tourism grants have been renewed by the City Council for a total of $977,000.

The new requests - from high to low - are:

$300,000 / Marietta Welcome Center
$24,000 / city marketing budget for museums
$20,000 / Cobb Landmarks
$12,000 / Marietta Arts Council
$10,000 / Atlanta Lyric Theatre
$8,000 / Marietta Fire Museum
$5,000 / Actors Theatre of GA

Remaining requests are:

$162,000 / Marietta Museum of History
$132,000 / city staff request - city services
$90,000 / Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art
$66,000 / The Earl Smith Strand Theatre
$55,000 / Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum
$18,000 / GA Metro Dance Theatre
$16,000 / Marietta Business Association (Art in Park)
$15,000 / Georgia Symphony Orchestra
$12,000 / Marietta Square Branding Project
$10,000 / Cobb NAACP Juneteenth
$10,000 / Old Zion Baptist Church Heritage Museum
$9,000 / city staff request - Vapor Wake Dog
$3,000 / The Georgia Ballet

Marietta Communications and Governmental Relations Manager Lindsey Wiles said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the $9,000 for the vapor wake dog is a bomb-sniffing dog which the city rents for certain events.

Wiles said renting the dog is “more cost effective than the city owning a bomb-sniffing dog.”

The $300,000 for the Marietta Welcome Center and the $162,000 for the Marietta Museum of History are for their normal annual operations.

The $132,000 for city services involves “tasks we perform as a city for events which bring tourism into Marietta like police, fire, sanitation, clean up both after and during the event and other staffing needs” throughout the fiscal year, Wiles added.