Clay County Tourist Development Council 04 November 2026

The Clay County Tourist Development Council meeting on November 4, 2026, reviewed tourism marketing, sports-event development, bed-tax collections, and grant requests. The Council approved two special-event grants: $2,000 for the Veterans Day event at Camp Blanding and $1,500 for Friends of Keystone Heights’ New Year’s Eve fireworks. It also approved three sports-event grants: $25,000 for Team USA Golf’s 2027 championships, $18,000 for the 2027 Clay County Open, and $25,000 for the Northeast Florida Scottish Highland Games. The three sports grants total $68,000; all five grants approved at the meeting total $71,500. Staff reported that $79,500 had been awarded from the fiscal-year $325,000 marketing-grant allocation before these approvals. The Council also unanimously approved the proposed 2027 meeting schedule.

Presentations covered tourism advertising campaigns and a sports-tourism video in development, which will be owned by Clay County, as well as Airstream Ventures’ event pipeline and prospective sports bids. The Council discussed the Thrasher-Horne Center’s estimated visitor spending and the county’s existing $120,000 support, including questions about measuring return on investment and whether future grant support could be better targeted; no action was taken on that funding. Staff also reviewed bed-tax trends and tourism updates. No new vendor contract award or capital-project approval was made.