To apply for this scholarship, you need to:

• Be 21 years of age or older and a resident of Colorado 
• Be a small business owner, a volunteer of or employed by an entity within a sector of the Colorado tourism industry
• First-time attendee of the Governor's Tourism Conference 
• Not be a current State of Colorado employee

Scholarship awards will be limited to one person per organization. Scholarships are awarded to individuals and are non-transferrable.

Businesses that support and provide services to tourism industry partners are not the intended recipients of these scholarship funds. The scholarship is for organizations and businesses that work directly with visitors and provide direct services to visitors who are the intended recipients.

The Colorado Governor's Tourism Conference Student Sponsorship is available for university student first-time attendees. The sponsorship covers conference registration and hotel. 

  Applications are now open.

Apply online through the OEDIT application portal. Log in or create a new account. New users are manually added to the portal for security reasons, so activating your account may take several days.

The application process is as follows: 

1. Verify your eligibility by reading through the guidelines carefully.
2. Prepare your application materials by filling out this Governors Tourism Conference Professional Scholarship Application Materials, (PDF). This document includes all application questions.
3. Submit your application in the OEDIT application portal.
4. Applications will be reviewed.
5. Scholarship status notification within one week after the application closes.

A panel of Colorado Tourism Office staff reviews applications and recommends awards based on application criteria and available funds. This is a competitive award program, and not all applicants receive the scholarship.

The panel reviews applications on these criteria:

• Merit (50%): your qualifications, eligibility, background, experience, and eagerness to learn.
• Impact (50%): how you plan to apply the skills and knowledge gained to benefit your career, your organization, and your destination or industry sector

Sponsorship recipients need to attend and participate in all conference activities, events, and sessions. Recipients will also be required to participate in a conference follow up webinar discussing new attendees’ experiences at the conference.

The following table outlines the timeline for the scholarships awarded in 2024.