Inaugural Muskingum County Tourism Development Grant

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Muskingum County recently began collecting a bed tax from all lodging establishments to garner funds for increasing tourism marketing and promotion. 

The Zanesville-Muskingum County Convention and Visitors Bureau has created a tourism development grant that distributes those tax revenues to applicants that conduct events, which draw visitors into the county.   

“With this money, we will actually do things in the local community. Our big event this year in Dresden is July 11th, The American Basket Festival event. And with that funding, we will advertise our event, we’ll try to stay within a 50 mile radius that’s recommended. If anyone wants an update or find out what’s going on, it’s www.destinationdresden.com,” Dresden Community Association President Darron Delancey said.

Five local organizations submitted an application explaining how their events contribute to the local tourism effort and how the $1,500 dollar grant from the CVB will be used to improve their operations.

“As Wolfie’s Family Campground, we operate a lot of RV and host a lot of RV campers. But we also host a lot of families here locally and with the neighboring cities to promote just family activities and things to do on the weekend. We want to bring people in from Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Wheeling. A lot of those neighboring cities, where there’s a lot of things between here and there but we want to bring those folks into Zanesville and certainly into Muskingum County.” Wolfie’s Campground Owner and Operator Kevin Strope said.

The list of grant recipients include:

Dresden Community Association for the American Basket Festival.

Wolfies Campground for their Summer Weekend programming. 

McDonalds Greenhouse for their annual Corn Maze.

Muskingum History for their December Putnam Home Tour.

Bravo 6 for their Stars and Strides 5K.