Sarah Courtney,Minister for Small Business, Hospitality and Events
Many regions have events that help celebrate and define their identity and with strong investment by the Tasmanian Liberal Government, Tasmania is recognised for our unique home grown events.
Tasmania's events landscape has been hit hard through COVID-19, and while we have invested $4 million under our Events Attraction Fund to strengthen the regional events calendar, we will do more.
That's why $1.5 million will be made available in a Regional Events Recovery Fund to support organisers to undertake activities that contribute to the sustainability of events in regional areas and will support the tourism and hospitality sectors.
Start-up or existing events held in regions across the State may be eligible to receive support under the Fund to assist with marketing activities or to engage short-term personnel to provide specialist advice in areas such as business development, risk management and evaluation measures to help improve long-term sustainability.
Our Government recognises the important role events will play in restoring visitation and stimulating the economy as we welcome visitors back to our State.
The introduction of the COVID-19 Safe Events and Activities in Tasmania framework in December was the first step in safely supporting the return of larger scale events.
In September last year we launched the Event Ready Grant program, providing funding of up to $5,000 to help event organisers implement and resource COVID-safe plans and building on this, we also delivered more than $1.2 million to help sustain essential event industry businesses during the pandemic who will play a vital part in our recovery, through the Event Infrastructure and Critical Support Small Business Grant program.
Pleasingly, Beerfest, MONA Foma, the Big Bash and many other fantastic events were able to safely go ahead, providing a welcome economic boost to our visitor economy and demonstrating that our plan to secure Tasmania's future is working.
