Salem Awarded $663K Federal CARES Act Coronavirus Recovery Grant

SALEM, MA — The economic recovery of the tourism and hospitality industries in the Salem area got a big boost via the federal CARES Act this week when the city was awarded a $662,922 grant that will be used for small business technical assistance in the tourism industry, to create a visitor marketing campaign and to host alternative events program.

The city also said it will use the grant to build an economic diversification strategy that will help the city "identify promising industries and recruit new businesses based on economic trends in the region," according to a joint statement from U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll.

The Economic Development Administration estimates the federal investment will create 374 new jobs in the greater Salem area, attract private investment to Salem, and make the region more economically resilient.

According to the U.S. Travel Association and US Department of Labor data, 39 percent of the jobs lost during the pandemic came in the leisure and hospitality sector. As of February, the unemployment rate in the industry is 16 percent, which is three times higher than the overall unemployment rate.

"So much of downtown Salem's economic success depends on people visiting us, eating at our restaurants, and staying at our hotels," Moulton said. "This grant will help us not only recover from the pandemic but explore new, innovative ways to do business in Salem, so we emerge from this stronger and better able to weather hits to the economy down the road."

Driscoll celebrated the grant's impact as well: "This investment will be key to helping many of our existing small business, especially in our hard-hit tourism and hospitality sectors. It also provides funds to assist us in strategies to continue growing the diversity of our economy.

"This major grant award will create hundreds of new jobs, attract private capital and advance greater economic resiliency and recovery for our community."

Driscoll thanked Moulton and his staff for helping secure the grant that she said "will not only provide short-term help to our local and regional economy but also longer-term assistance for our ongoing post-pandemic recovery."

US Labor Department data shows the arts, entertainment and recreation industry lost 800,000 jobs in the past year.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)