I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4676 
To direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish a competitive grant program 
to promote domestic regional tourism. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 24, 2010 
Mr. FARR introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish a competi-
tive grant program to promote domestic regional tourism. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Travel Regional Invest-
ment Partnership Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The importance of travel and tourism can-
not be overstated: travel and tourism employs Amer-
ica. 
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(2) Approximately 8,300,000 domestic jobs de-
pend on the travel and tourism industry. 
(3) The United States travel and tourism in-
dustry is worth more than $691,000,000,000 annu-
ally in direct spending, of which more than 85 per-
cent is the result of domestic travel. Including indi-
rect 
spending, 
such 
industry 
tops 
$1,200,000,000,000 in spending. 
(4) The travel and tourism industry accounts 
for 2.6 percent of GDP, nearly four times that of 
the automotive industry. 
(5) Domestic employment related to the travel 
and tourism industry cannot be outsourced to other 
countries. 
(6) The current economic downturn has created 
the most difficult economic environment for the do-
mestic travel and tourism industry since the period 
following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 
2001. 
(7) The travel and tourism industry has con-
tracted by nearly $130,000,000,000 in 2009 alone. 
The domestic tourism economy has fallen by nearly 
4.5 percent during 2009, twice the rate of the over-
all economy of the United States. 
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(8) Domestic spending on travel and tourism 
has been in decline since the fourth quarter of fiscal 
year 2008, while employment in the travel and tour-
ism industry has been falling since the second quar-
ter of such year. 
(9) Public-private partnerships have been un-
derutilized in the promotion of travel and tourism 
and are a dynamic tool in creating new domestic 
tourism markets and promoting domestic regional 
tourism growth. 
SEC. 3. DOMESTIC REGIONAL TOURISM GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT
BY
SECRETARY
OF
COM-
MERCE.—The Secretary of Commerce shall establish a 
competitive grant program, administered by the Office of 
Travel and Tourism Industries, to promote domestic re-
gional tourism growth and new domestic tourism market 
creation. 
(b) RANGE OF GRANT MONETARY AMOUNTS.—No 
grant shall be less than $100,000 or more than 
$1,000,000. 
(c) GRANTEE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.— 
(1) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—The following entities 
are eligible for a grant under this section for the 
purposes of promoting domestic regional tourism 
growth and new domestic tourism market creation: 
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(A) A Convention and Visitors Bureau. 
(B) A partnership between a State or local 
government and a local tourism entities. 
(2) APPLICATION PROCESS.— 
(A) SUBMISSION.—An eligible entity seek-
ing a grant under this section shall submit to 
the Secretary an application at such time, in 
such form, and with such information and as-
surances as the Secretary may require. 
(B) CONTENTS.—Such application shall in-
clude— 
(i) a description of the tourist pro-
motion activities that the grant will fund; 
and 
(ii) in the case of a partnership be-
tween a State or local government and 
local tourism entities— 
(I) the specific tourist entities 
that such government has partnered 
with in order promote tourism within 
the relevant domestic region; and 
(II) the details of the partnership 
and specific information as to how 
such partnership will increase regional 
tourism. 
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(d) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.— 
(1) NON-FEDERAL FUNDS.—As a condition of 
receipt of a grant under this section, the grant re-
cipient shall provide, either directly or through dona-
tions from public or private entities, non-Federal 
matching funds, in cash or in-kind, in an amount 
equal to the amount of the grant. 
(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR IN-KIND DONATIONS.— 
Of the amount of non-Federal matching funds re-
quired under paragraph (1), not more than 25 per-
cent shall be provided through in-kind contributions. 
(e) REPORTS.—Not later than 6 months after the end 
of each fiscal year in which grants were awarded by the 
Secretary under this section, the Secretary shall submit 
a report to Congress on— 
(1) travel-generated expenditures; 
(2) travel-generated tax receipts; and 
(3) travel-generated employment. 
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Commerce. 
(2) LOCAL TOURIST ENTITY.—The term ‘‘local 
tourist entity’’ means any public or private sector 
business engaged in tourism-related activities. 
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(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of the 
first 5 fiscal years that begin after the date of enactment 
of this section for grants under this section, and such 
amounts appropriated shall remain available until ex-
pended. 
Æ 
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