Grants program thresholds adjusted and scheme extended.
Tourism Minister Dan Tehan this morning confirmed changes to the $50 million Business Events Grants Program, including increasing the number of delegates, sponsorship caps and priority sectors covered by the scheme.
The program, which covers up to 50% of the costs of participating in approved events, will also have its application threshold halved to $10,000 in spending to allow smaller businesses to apply.
Support is also being extended for events scheduled through until March 2022 which were postponed from early this year due to snap border closures, and grant applications will now be open until 30 June 2021.
Expressions of Interest for event owners to have their events included on the Schedule of Approved Business Events will also reopen early next month, with an updated version of the program guidelines and eligiblity criteria – including an expansion of the “priority sectors” – to be published in by the end of March.
The update came as part of a $1.2 billion tourism stimulus package which is funding hundreds of thousands of discounted airfares to 13 regional destinations, an extension of a Government-backed loans scheme for small and regional businesses, and additional support for the travel agency sector.
More details in Travel Daily today and Business Events News next week.
