Visit Philadelphia - the city's official tourist board, which is normally funded out of lodging tax revenues - faced having to furlough indefinitely its 50 employees, but jobs have been saved at least temporarily by a $1M federal loan under the Payroll Protection Program.

The funds from this loan - part of the Government's COVID-19 economic stimulus program - are expected to keep Visit Philadelphia staff working for 2 months.

COVID-19 has already cost the city $1.1B in tourism-related economic activity.

Visit Philadelphia is fortunate in being a 501(c)3 non-profit and thus eligible to participate in the PPP - unlike most local and regional DMOs that have 501(c)4 or 501(c)6 status or are part of local government, and are currently ineligible.

Let's hope some of the benefits of that $1M loan trickle down to Philadelphia's tourism businesses.