Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Tourism Office awarded grants to seven Colorado cities on Tuesday, intended to fund economic recovery efforts for the local tourism industries.

Organizations in Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins, Loveland, Sterling and La Junta will receive $1.8 million in grants ranging from $75,000 to $500,000. The one-time funds can be used for city, county or regional tourism marketing and promotional campaigns.

“Colorado is home to inspirational world-class outdoor gems, deep cultural history and unique destinations that offer endless reasons to visit,” Polis said. “Our administration is providing help for communities across our state that are tourism destinations to help our economy thrive, address challenging local issues like affordable workforce housing and create jobs.”

This Tourism Recovery Marketing Grant was funded by money from the American Rescue Plan Act, distributed to Colorado through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation State Grant. State officials said the grant program aims to attract visitors to Colorado cities and towns that are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal COVID-19 relief funding more than doubled the $710,000 in grants that the Colorado Tourism Office awarded last year.

“This federal funding allows the Colorado Tourism Office to directly support tourism communities still in recovery,” said Timothy Wolfe, director of the Colorado Tourism Office. “We have different communities across the state recovering at different rates, and this additional funding allows our partners to strive to get back to pre-pandemic levels where we saw record visitor spending at $24.2 billion.”

The grant recipients are as follows:

? Denver: $500,000 to the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau to re-establish pre-pandemic programs designed to complement and amplify promotional efforts in international markets.

? Colorado Springs: $400,000 to the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau to support a meetings and events marketing campaign leveraging the “Olympic City USA” brand.

? Aurora: $400,000 to Visit Aurora for a marketing campaign focused on inspiring, engaging and converting meeting, convention and group bookings in Aurora.

? Fort Collins: $175,000 to the Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau for creative assets, media buys and public relations efforts to bolster year-round visitation, especially in the off-season months.

? Loveland: $175,000 to the City of Loveland-Economic Development Corp for a fully integrated marketing plan across numerous platforms to regain market share lost during the pandemic.

? Sterling: $75,000 to Logan County for a “Free Range Travel” marketing campaign aimed at raising awareness of the outdoor assets along the Interstate 76 corridor.

? La Junta: $75,000 to the City of La Junta to launch its first official marketing campaign, “You Would Never Guess,” promoting the new Visit La Junta brand: “Rich History, Unexpected Adventure.”

The grant recipients will have two years to execute their projects after receiving the funds.

The seven recipients were chosen from 12 applicants, requesting a total of $3.2 million. Applications were evaluated on the strength the proposed marketing campaigns, demonstrated need, measurable tourism impact from the pandemic and implementation capacity, state officials said.