The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provides a number of grants, loans, loan guarantees and other non-financial, business assistance programs to foster the growth of businesses in the travel and tourism industry.
The funding opportunities and support programs are open to individual businesses, with the exception of the Tourism Promotion Assistance Grants and the Regional Marketing Partnership Grants programs. It should be noted that “experience-based" Regional Marketing Partnership Grants may be provided to a consortium of business entities that meet the program requirements for marketing an experience or set of experiences with a common theme and whose geographic coverage extends across a geographic region or multiple regions.
An overview and links to the various programs can be found on this site. Please click on the links for Pennsylvania's financial assistance programs for tourism or technical assistance programs, or go to newpa.com for information on the business assistance programs offered by the commonwealth.
State Financial Assistance Programs
Pennsylvania provides planning grants, low-interest loans, and loan guarantees to tourism-related businesses in the commonwealth. The commonwealth also provides the Regional Marketing Partnership Grant program, which is open to officially designated regional marketing organizations and to consortia of businesses or other entities that come together to market a specific experience to tourists and offered statewide or across multiple regions. The regional marketing partnership grants are awarded on a competitive basis. The Tourism Promotion Assistance Grant program is restricted to the state's designated tourism promotion agencies. Please click on the links below for each of the state's financial assistance programs available to entities involved in the tourism industry.
First Local Development District Loans
Technical Assistance
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania offers a variety of programs to help Pennsylvania businesses grow and prosper. The programs are generally targeted to small- and medium-sized businesses and cover a wide range of topics ranging from financing and regulatory compliance to energy efficiency and product development, among many others.
Please click on the following links to learn more about Pennsylvania's technical assistance programs.
Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs)
Pennsylvania’s Small Business Development Centers, or SBDCs, provide technical assistance and consulting services to current and prospective entrepreneurs and existing small businesses through a network of 18 university-based centers and more than 100 outreach centers located throughout the state. The mission of Pennsylvania’s SBDCs is to grow the economy of Pennsylvania by providing entrepreneurs and small-business owners with the education, information and tools necessary to build successful businesses. SBDC staff provide confidential, no-cost consulting services to entrepreneurs and small-business owners in one-on-one sessions to develop practical solutions for a wide range of business issues including financing, testing a new business proposition, shaping a business plan, personnel/human resource issues and considerations, investigating funding opportunities or new markets, regulatory compliance, and many others.
Please click here to learn more about the services and assistance available from Pennsylvania's network of SBDCs.
Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP)
The Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program, or PennTAP, provides confidential, no-cost technical assistance to Pennsylvania’s small and entrepreneurial businesses to resolve specific technical questions or needs. A program of Penn State University, PennTAP is a federal-state-university partnership for economic development that uses a network of technical specialists located throughout the state with expertise in a variety of focus areas including energy efficiency, environmental compliance, occupational health and safety, advanced information technology, and product development, among others. Focusing on small and entrepreneurial businesses that typically lack the expertise and/or resources to address these types of issues in-house, PennTAP’s technical specialists provide objective, unbiased advice and experience-based solutions and connections to other partners, expertise, resources, and programs.
Please click here to learn more about the services and assistance available from PennTAP.
Local Development Districts (LDDs)
Technical assistance is available for businesses seeking to expand their markets through Pennsylvania’s Local Development Districts, which are designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission and serve 52 of the Commonwealth’s 67 counties.
Please click here to learn more about the services and assistance available from the Local Development Districts.