Federal grants for regional Australian tourism businesses

The Australian Government is offering new grants of up to $250,000 on a matched dollar-for-dollar funding basis to help tourism operators increase the quality and range of visitor experiences in regional Australia.

The money has been released under Round 2 of the Tourism Industry Regional Development Fund (TIRF) Grants Program.

Launching the new round of the competitive, merit-based TIRF Grants Program, Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Don Farrell, explained that funding of about $9.6 million is available for eligible projects, with approximately 50 projects expected to be funded in this round.

Key points of the funding are:

• Sums available per project are $50,000 to $250,000 (GST exclusive);

• Online applications close at 11.59pm AEST on Wednesday 7th August 2013;

• Outcomes are expected to be advised in October 2013;

• Projects will be able to start from December 2013 and must be completed by 31st March 2016.

The release of TIRF Round 2 was warmly welcomed by the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), which has been urging the government to continue to encourage investment in regional areas.

ATEC's 2013 Election Priorities called on all parties to continue to provide "much needed support to regional businesses to upgrade their products and experiences" and to ensure that industry investment is supported across the states.

ATEC Chairman John King stated "every government needs to recognise the importance of greater disbursement of visitors and its significance to regional economies and communities.

"Following a number of tough years for regional tourism, it is important to encourage tourism operators to invest in infrastructure upgrades and better experience facilitation to help encourage more visitors to travel beyond the major gateways.

"In our election priorities released earlier this month at our Symposium, ATEC outlined that support programs building skills training and career development to promote tourism as a career option, not just a short term employment opportunity, were essential to our success as tourism destination.

"We called for all parties to invest in programs to build the capacity of regional workers to meet the needs of the tourism industry. Now that this investment opportunity is realised, we need to make sure that regional businesses are ready and able to take advantage of the grants on offer."

For more information go to www.ret.gov.au/tourism/business/tirf/Pages/index.aspx

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