Department Of Commerce

In Section 6001(c) of the American Rescue Plan, the United States Congress appropriated $750 million to the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Program to help state and local tourism sectors recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In August of 2021, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte designated the Montana Department of Commerce as the recipient of Montana’s share of those funds, which totaled over $2.9 million. See also Section 2 of 2023 House Bill 4 at page 13.

Commerce's Destination MT Division drafted a proposal to use these grant funds to develop and implement six regional resiliency plans and one aggregate state-level resiliency plan. The goal of the planning was to identify predictable and unpredictable variables that could undermine Montana’s post-pandemic local economies — including floods, wildfires and other natural disasters — if not assessed and addressed proactively. Destination MT utilized approximately half of the grant funding in Phase One, which focused on planning and was completed in early 2024.

The finalized state and regional resiliency plans can be reviewed:

Destination MT reserved the second half of the grant funding for Phase Two, which is the implementation phase, with a total of $1.5 million available for eligible tourism regions. The purpose of the program is to provide regions with an early investment, which they can use alongside other private or public dollars that may be available, to begin implementing the priority items identified in their regional resiliency plans. Regions were awarded in spring 2025 and are currently working on these efforts until May 2026.

Please refer to the Resiliency Plan Implementation Grant Guidelines for an introduction to the program.