When the snow flies next winter, Sleepy Hollow Sports Park will invite Kansas City residents to save money on gasoline by skiing or tubing closer to home.

The privately owned recreation area on the city’s East Side will use a $10,000 matching state grant to run a television advertising campaign for the first time in that market. It’s one of 23 organizations across the state that will receive grants totaling nearly $163,000 from the state’s Regional Tourism Marketing Grant program. Approved by legislators a year ago, the program appropriates one-half of the gaming tax revenues that would otherwise revert to the state’s general fund to be used by the Iowa Tourism Office, and to award grants to assist communities in placing tourism advertising.

Each organization receiving the grants, ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 each, must provide a minimum dollar-for-dollar match in ad spending. The funds must be used by June 30, 2009.

Sleepy Hollow’s marketing coordinator, Max Kenkel, said Kansas City doesn’t have a comparable winter recreation area nearby. “With gas prices, we thought it would be an opportunity to take advantage of that for attracting group travel,” he said. The park shot footage this past winter for the ads.

The Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau also received a $10,000 grant it will use to advertise in Kansas City, said Greg Edwards, the CVB’s president and CEO. The attractions specifically promoted in the ads will include Adventureland Park, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, the Science Center of Iowa and the Iowa Speedway, as well as general promotion of Greater Des Moines in each ad, Edwards said. The CVB, which typically spends about $100,000 per ad campaign in Kansas City, also received a $10,000 state grant earlier this year it used to advertise in Kansas City.

The advertising appears to be effective, Edwards said. “We have seen an obvious increase in our unique visitors on our Web site and phone calls from the Kansas City market,” Edwards said. “The real truth will be later this summer if these entities see increases in visitors, and increased hotel bookings on weekends.”