Alexandria Firm Receives $25K Tourism Grant from Virginia

Old Town-based Food Tour Corporation in conjunction with the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau has received a $25,000 grant from the state to promote its coastal food tours.

The state asked the St. Asaph St.-based company, which also conducts D.C. metro food tours , to help boost tourism in the off-season along Virginia Beach, according to Mallory O’Connell, operations manager for Food Tours.

The company offers multi-day motor coach “harvest tours” that bring participants to various farms such as clam or strawberry farms and vineyards for feasts during the fall season.

Gov. Bob McDonnell on Thursday announced the $635,000 in matching grant funds to 35 local tourism initiatives as part of the VTC Marketing Leverage Grant program.

The grants are designed to assist local and regional tourism entities to attract more visitors by leveraging local marketing dollars. The local organizations match the state grant funds by a minimum of 3-to-1 to create marketing projects such as websites, signage, social media and advertisements.