The Lancaster County tourism industry dodged a bullet.

For now.

Last week officials with the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, which markets Lancaster County to visitors, received word that Gov. Ed Rendell had abandoned a plan to "claw back" some of the grant money allocated for tourism promotion in the current budget. That move could have cost the local tourism bureau up to $76,000.

Instead, the local visitors bureau will get to keep all of the $270,000 it was scheduled to receive this year. But bureau officials say the reprieve is only temporary, as Rendell already has announced plans to cut their budget next year.

In a letter sent to Christopher Barrett, president and CEO of the local visitors bureau, the state Department of Community and Economic Development advised that "your Tourism Promotion Assistance grant that had been canceled ... has been reinstated."

More than 85 percent of the tourism promotion agencies around the commonwealth already have "committed all of their grant dollars" allocated in the current budget, wrote Rose Mape, executive director of state tourism. Therefore, she concluded, "all TPA grants will remain the same" as initially budgeted.

Instead, she wrote, "adjustments will be made" to regional marketing partnerships — such as the one that touts the "Dutch Country Roads" region of Southcentral Pennsylvania, which includes Lancaster County. Decisions on how much those grants will be cut will be announced soon, she wrote.

Barrett, who also chairs the Dutch Country Roads Regional Coalition, said that partnership had been in line for a $450,000 grant in 2009-2010, but "we aren't sure we'll see anything this year (and) we aren't sure if we will get anything for 2010-11 either."

If that's the case, Barrett said, it will limit or lead to the elimination of the "regional marketing we do through radio ads, Web outreach, group sales, and PR (public relations)."

Just two years ago the state shifted funds to partnerships such as Dutch Country Roads as part of a new effort to promote regions rather than specific cities or counties. But that initiative, like many other state programs, has been hammered by the state's dismal fiscal outlook.

Overall, Pennsylvania reduced the amount it spends on tourism funding from $32.4 million in 2008-2009 to $14.25 in 2009-2010, a 56 percent drop.

Next year, Rendell said in a budget address earlier this month, he plans to spend even less.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau saw its own allocation fall from $1 million in 2007-2008 to the current $270,000; next year that figure could drop to $194,000.

The state funding is a small portion of the bureau's overall budget, which totals about $4.9 million this year. However, the state grant is the second-biggest source of revenue in the budget; the first is the county hotel room tax, which generates about $2 million a year — though that figure has stagnated as the recession has led to fewer tourists and a drop in hotel occupancy rates here.

Some in the local tourism industry worry that additional state cuts to tourism promotion grants could lead to even fewer visotirs, jobs and ultimately less tax revenue generated.

Tourism is the second-largest industry in Lancaster County, generating an estimated $1.8 billion in consumer spending each year, $460 million in tax revenues, and 40,000 jobs, according to figures from the local visitors bureau.