Tourism Development Fund – Approval of Grants
Issue and recommendation
Applicants were invited to make applications to the Tourism Development Fund in October and November 2011. These applications were considered in detail by the Tourism Development Fund Panel, which has decided to recommend the award of grants to five of organisations. The total amount that would be granted across all organisations for this round of applications is £216,750.
Background
The States agreed to the establishment of the Tourism Development Fund (TDF) in 2001 (P170/2001). Over the last ten years the TDF has enjoyed considerable success with a proven track record of increasing visitor numbers and spend, generating additional investment in tourism, and developing media opportunities to bring the unique benefits of Jersey to a wider audience
The Tourism Development Panel is a private sector led Panel and consists of a number of members from across the Tourism Industry. Its role is to scrutinise all applications so that only high quality initiatives with sound business plans and the potential to add significant value to Jersey are successful in gaining support.
The following applications were deemed to meet their criteria, and recommended for grant approval. These will be subject to specific conditions outlined by the Panel, as well as contracts that are compliant with Financial Direction 5.4.
- National Trust for Jersey for the creation of a wetland visitor centre (£50,000)
- Durrell Wildlife Development Trust for developing luxury camping at Durrell (£121,500)
- Music in Action for an international marketing campaign for the Liberation Music Festival (£7,250)
- Jersey Sea Search for the development of a marine exploration resources for the development of an eco-tourism offering (£28,000)
- Branchage for the development of a five year business plan to develop the festival (£10,000)
Minutes of the Panel’s meetings will be available on the TDF webpage by the end of January.
Resource implications
The grants are made from the Tourism Development Fund which has sufficient resources to cover all grants awarded. There are no additional resource or manpower implications.
Recommendation
It is recommended that the Minister approves the grants.
Performance and Operations Manager