By Tara Kenchen
At Durham Next, we work on projects that make Durham better for our neighbors who live here and our friends who visit. That means investing visitor-generated dollars back into the community to strengthen the experiences and opportunities that make Durham a great place to call home and a compelling place to explore.
Our guide is the Destination Master Plan (DMP), a 20-year vision shaped by the community that identifies more than 60 projects designed to build Durham’s tourism economy and bolster our way of life. The Master Plan sets an ambitious goal: that by 2044, Durham will be “the most welcoming, inclusive, innovative and vibrant destination in the United States, while thoughtfully honoring its history and people.” But a plan only matters if it leads to action and one way we’re realizing the Master Plan’s vision is by investing in the events and experiences that give Durham its distinctive character.
A great festival is more than a good time. It’s an engine for small businesses, a showcase for local culture and a source of community pride. It enriches life for the people who call Durham home while giving visitors another reason to choose our city amid steep competition. That’s why Durham Next created its pilot Community Investment Program (CIP) – and has now awarded more than half a million dollars in grants to help our festivals and events grow and thrive.
The funding draws from money generated by visitors staying in Durham hotels and short-term rentals (aka occupancy taxes). The goal is simple: reinvest in the experiences that keep Durham bold and distinctive, strengthen community life and generate economic benefits across our city and county.
And those benefits extend far beyond festival weekends.
According to new data from a study commissioned by Visit NC, tourism contributed $1.17 billion to the local economy in 2025, up from $1.16 billion in 2024. This spending directly supports the small businesses that give Durham its character, the workers who make a living here and local government budgets that fund the services that contribute to residents’ quality of life.
That steady growth is also a business case for investing in Durham itself. When visitors spend more here, the benefits ripple through our local economy, creating opportunity for businesses, workers and the community. But the data also shows that the year-over-year growth Durham has consistently seen in visitor spending is softening. That’s a good, dollars-and-cents reason to invest in our tourism economy—and ultimately, a way to create more opportunity for residents, entrepreneurs and neighborhoods throughout our community.
A robust and sustainable festival ecosystem is one way we can strengthen community life while growing Durham’s visitor economy. We’re fortunate to have an array of popular events, many of which have the potential to deepen their local impact while attracting more visitors. To help make that happen, the Community Investment Program includes two funding opportunities.
The Accelerate Fund provides investments of up to $100,000 annually for three years to a select group of local festivals. It is designed to help established festivals grow their audiences and build long-term sustainability. In addition to funding, recipients receive support with business planning, marketing, sponsorship development and other tools for long-term success.
The Impact Fund takes a broader approach, providing matching investments of $10,000 to $25,000 for local events, activations and community-based projects that benefit residents while drawing visitors to Durham.
And now, we’re beginning to see what that investment can look like in practice.
In this inaugural round of the program, Durham Next has awarded a total of $535,000 to 11 organizations. Five festivals make up the first Accelerate cohort: American Dance Festival, Full Frame Film Festival, Hayti Heritage Film Festival, Liberty Arts Iron Pour and Parrish Street Ride, Run, Walk.
The Impact Fund is supporting six more community-led projects, including A City of Wonder from Downtown Durham Inc, BOOMSlang from BOOM Club, Breathe Parrish from Bright Black, Bull City Blues Ramble from Alice Sharpe, Durham FRINGE Festival from the Carolina Theatre and Signal Exchange from Slingshot Festival.
The Durham FRINGE Festival offers one example of how that investment can help community-led ideas gain momentum. “The Impact Fund really helped ensure that there was a solid financial footing for the launch of the festival,” said The Carolina Theatre of Durham President and CEO Randy McKay. “This festival is large and no one funding source could help ensure that the entire festival was possible. But the Impact Fund gave us the financial footing and ability to go to other funders to say, ‘Hey, come on board. This project is really important, and look at who is supporting it.’ So impact, I think, is the right word because it really gave the festival the opportunity to say, hey, look, you’re on board a rising tide.”
The projects themselves offer a glimpse of the possibilities ahead. Some will expand or strengthen established festivals. Others will create new ways to experience Durham’s history, arts and neighborhoods. Together, they point toward the kind of visitor economy Durham should be building: one that doesn’t simply bring more people here, but invests in the culture, experiences and neighborhoods that matter to residents while giving visitors more reasons to engage with the city.
Importantly, the funding for both programs comes from visitor-generated occupancy taxes, not money collected from Durham residents. Communities across the country use similar revenue streams to strengthen destination appeal and support projects that contribute to long-term economic vitality.
These investments matter beyond the individual events. A stronger festival can mean more visitors staying overnight, eating at local restaurants, shopping with local businesses and discovering parts of Durham they might not otherwise encounter. A new cultural experience can give residents another reason to feel pride in their community while giving visitors another reason to come back. This kind of investment is particularly important now, as the new Visit NC study shows Durham’s tourism economy is no longer growing at the pace it has in years past.
Can Durham achieve its ambitious vision for 2044? Yes. Our Community Investment Program is just one step in a long and steady march for Durham Next, our partners and our entire community.
By thoughtfully creating more reasons to visit, we create more revenue flowing into our businesses, government and neighborhoods. A good experience for visitors can be great for Durham. We say “can be” because it’s important that we stay true to the unique character, grit, entrepreneurial zeal, artistic spirit and welcoming vibe that has made Durham such a remarkable place.
This is a tall order. But with the Destination Master Plan and our Community Advisory Council to guide us, Durham’s future looks even brighter than its storied past.
Tara Kenchen is the executive director of Durham Next: durhamnext.org.
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