To apply for this scholarship, applicants must be 21 years of age or older, a resident of Colorado and one of the following must apply to the applicant:

• Be a small business owner, a volunteer of or employed by an entity within a sector of the Colorado tourism industry attending the Governor's Tourism Conference for the first time (up to 10 recipients).
• Be a volunteer of or employed by a designated Colorado Welcome Center Program Regional partner (up to 5 recipients).

Scholarship awards are limited to one individual per organization and are non-transferrable. Only employees of organizations and businesses that directly serve visitors are eligible for these scholarships. State of Colorado employees and individuals working for businesses that only support tourism industry partners are not eligible.

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

  Applications will open on June 24, 2025. Please sign up for the Colorado Tourism Office email updates.

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 - Coming Soon). 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 four weeks 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

Scholarship 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.

Scholarship recipients shall obtain and maintain insurance as is required by law at all times during the term of this Grant Agreement. OEDIT reserves the right to ask and review evidence of insurance certificates.

The following table outlines the timeline for the scholarships awarded in 2025.