Iowa City, Cedar Rapids organizations receive Iowa Tourism grants

The Iowa Tourism Office awarded almost $300,000 in grants Tuesday to organizations throughout the state, including Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids and Think Iowa City.

Both organizations received $10,000 for projects designed to increase tourism in Iowa.

Think Iowa City will be using the money to produce a series of customizable videos that can be shown during trade show presentations encouraging sports and other groups to bring business to Iowa City, according to Nick Pfeiffer, the Vice President of Public Affairs for Think Iowa City.

The videos will be designed so that they can be changed to be appropriate for different groups, with the content in the middle remaining the same.

“It’s really just a way for us to package some of the highlights that we have as far as our stock footage that we already have, as well as gaining some more video footage and then packaging them so that they are customizable to the audience that we’re going for,” Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer said the videos should be completed by the spring of 2023.

The Indian Creek Nature Center will be using the $10,000 from the grant to make several small improvements to the center. The goal is to make it more welcoming and accessible for visitors, both those from Cedar Rapids and those coming in from elsewhere, according to Katie Giorgio, the grants coordinator for the Indian Creek Nature Center.

These improvements will include brown street signs near the center to help community members find its location, and welcome signs with maps at the center, so that people can find their way on the trails surrounding the center even when the building itself isn’t open. The money also will go toward some general marketing funding to help increase knowledge about the center.

“We were really excited to be able to apply for this funding. I think it’s really exciting that Iowa Tourism values having this kind of partnership across the state to help meet their goals in driving tourism,” Giorgio said.

“The nature center turns 50 in 2023. We’ve been in the community for 50 years, which is really exciting and a big milestone for us, and so we’ve been thinking a lot about how we not only excite community members but maybe people from around Eastern Iowa, across the state and beyond the borders of Iowa as well, because we would really love to celebrate with everyone and let them know about the nature center and what we offer and what a unique entity we are in the community.”

According to a news release from the Iowa Tourism Office, visitors spent more than $6.1 billion across Iowa in 2021, which was an increase of 35 percent over 2020 spending, and within 5 percent of a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels of tourism spending.

“We’re pleased to invest in campaigns that work to change the perception of tourism in Iowa and encourage more people to visit our state,” Amy Zeigler, the manager of the Iowa Tourism Office, said in the release. “These projects will help us continue the momentum and growth of our industry.”

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