Sullivan County Grants Route Lodging Tax to Businesses

Hospitality and event operators in the Catskills can tap grants funded by overnight visitor spending.

Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Philanthropy

Weathered wooden barn at the edge of a meadow beneath forested Catskills ridgelines in soft autumn light. — Sullivan County received the 2026 New York State Tourism Excellence Award for a grant program that returns lodging tax revenue from overnight visitors to local tourism businesses, events and organizations. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Sullivan County received the 2026 New York State Tourism Excellence Award for its Tourism Grant Program, presented by the New York State Tourism Industry Association in the Transformational Tourism Stewardship: Tourism Advocacy category. The program directs lodging tax revenue paid by overnight visitors into grants for local tourism businesses, events and organizations.

Why it matters

The program ties tourism promotion funding directly to the businesses that depend on visitor spending, giving lodging-tax revenue a return path into the local operator base. For businesses in the Catskills region, it signals that county-level tourism grants can be a recurring source of support for events, marketing and organizational activity.

Sullivan County's visitor economy has grown to more than $1 billion, according to the award announcement. The source does not report grant totals, recipient counts or year-over-year growth figures for the program.

The players

Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association (SCVA)

The destination marketing organization that administers Sullivan County's tourism grant program and promotes the county's visitor economy.

New York State Tourism Industry Association

The statewide trade association that presents the New York State Tourism Excellence Awards to recognize tourism advocacy and stewardship.

The details

Lodging tax revenue paid by overnight visitors is directed into grants that support local businesses, events and organizations contributing to the region's tourism economy. County staff helped develop the program, which is administered by the Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association. Because the grants flow to operators rather than only to marketing, the mechanism links visitor spending back to the businesses that serve those visitors.

Award presented at the Economic Development Committee meeting in Monticello on Thursday, the week of November 6, 2026.

Market Landscape

Many New York counties rely on lodging tax revenue to fund destination marketing organizations, typically spent on advertising and promotion. Sullivan County's model of granting that revenue to local businesses, events and organizations is presented in the award as unusual for a county-level tourism agency of this scale.

Tourism-dependent businesses in Sullivan County and the Catskills should watch for grant cycles and eligibility criteria from the Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association. Operators in lodging, hospitality and event services should factor potential grant funding into planning for marketing and programming.

The takeaway

Lodging tax dollars paid by visitors can be routed back to local operators through a county grant program, a model worth tracking for other destination markets. Businesses seeking funding should contact the Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association to ask about current grant rounds and application timing.