Who can apply for grant funding?
Aid is available to help attract more visitors to rural areas and to develop the tourism sector of the economy and to make the sector more efficient. Business people & entrepreneurs (either unemployed people, new businesses, or existing businesses) particularly in the following business sectors: tourism, accommodation, visitor attractions and food & drink.
Examples may include:
- New and existing tourism business making physical improvements to the internal and external of their business, priority will be given to applicants who show that they can clearly identify environmental concern and show means of reducing the carbon footprint, and clearly wish to improve their quality rating of their business by becoming quality inspected through accommodation accreditation scheme (Quality in Tourism or AA) or attractions schemes such as the Visitor Attraction Code of Practice or Visitor Attraction Quality Awareness Scheme (VAQAS)
- Fund necessary research & feasibility studies relating to the tourism sector
- Support and develop the local food and drink sector
- Developing events in the area that increase the number of day visitors to the area and particularly encourage overnight staying visitors
- Develop and support a network of trails and off road cycle opportunities, with links to the facilities of local communities. Priority will be for projects which enhance the strategic network and link tourism destinations
- Develop tourism opportunities related to the Chesterfield Canal
Eligible Activities may include:
- small-scale infrastructure such as information centres and the sign posting and interpretation of tourist sites
- recreational infrastructure such as that offering access to natural areas and the historic environment
- small-capacity accommodation provision and upgrading of existing provision when justified by significant wider benefits
- the development and/or marketing of rural tourism services
- assisting tourism providers to develop clusters and business initiatives to meet visitor needs and market their products and services
- networking and collaboration within the tourism industry including bench marketing
- supporting the development of new niche markets eg 'green tourism'
- promotion of tourism activities linked to quality regional and local food culture and rural crafts
- improved information and booking arrangements, including e-tourism and other use of ICT
Eligible Costs may include:
- grant aid towards the costs of small-scale capital investments
- feasibility studies and start-up revenue costs
- cost of establishing collaborative initiatives
- marketing support and market development activities, directly linked to an investment under this measure
- technical support to help new businesses become established and to help existing businesses to improve the quality of their services, consolidate and expand
Outputs - Depending on the level of grant requested, we will expect eligible grant recipients to achieve some of the following
Number of new tourism actions supported - 18
Additional number of overnight visitors - 3400
Additional number of day visitors - 21600
Employment Created - 14