Smaller SC communities can apply for grants to develop tourism industry

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism is now accepting pre-applications for a program designed to help bring visitors to undiscovered parts of the state.

The Undiscovered South Carolina grant program was created to develop tourism in smaller, rural areas of the state, Department of Parks and Recreation Director Duane Parrish said. Applicants must be from a county or municipal government with accommodations tax distributions of $900,000 or less.

The amount of the grant ranges from $50,000, all the way up to $200,000.

Parrish said a lot of the smaller cities in the state don’t have the funding to develop a tourism industry of their own. So, this grant will hopefully generate tourism in those smaller, less developed areas.

“Charleston can afford bluestone sidewalks, whereas Bamberg cannot.  That’s the best way I can kind of surmise it. Is to say that it’s intended for those areas to draw more tourists, draw more dollars and create economic development in a community that otherwise may not have as much as other cities do,” Parrish said.

Pre-Applications will be accepted through SCPRT’s online portal and must be submitted by Sept. 30 at 4 p.m..

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