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RBP update: Help for the Tourism Sector. Support, Recovery and Re-set Plan for our Tourism Communities.

If you are a tourism business or a tourism service business where the majority of the work you did was directly reliant on providing support services to a Tourism business, then this is here to help you reposition your business. It is also to prepare in readiness for when our tourists can return.

The government has allocated new funding to a new Business Advisory Support, Advice Implementation Grant, and initiatives for the Tourism Communities.

This funding initiative has a strong focus on Support, Recovery and Re-set in our most affected regions.

The business funding initiatives target tourism businesses in the 5 communities most affected by the loss of international tourism:

  1. Queenstown Lakes District

  2. Southland District

  3. Kaikōura District

  4. Mackenzie District

  5. Westland District

The business initiatives are:

  • Business Advisory Support (up to $5,000 per business operation) to enable businesses to receive expert advice and support, such as on changing target markets or scaling their business.
  • Grants for businesses to implement business advice (up to $5,000 per business operation).

    This is exciting stuff! To be able to action advice and ideas that came up during the COVID19 sessions into real things and outcomes with professionals is incredible for tourism businesses!

Register your interest for the Business Advisory Support and Advice Implementation Grant on the RBP homepage | Regional Business Partner Network 

If you are already registered then get in touch with your growth advisor or the support email that you have to indicate your interest in the funding.

There are some very reasonable and simple eligibility criteria that apply. Your business must:

  • Be a GST registered business or GST registered prior to COVID-19 (2019/20 financial year);

  • Have a New Zealand Business Number. If you do not have a New Zealand Business Number, you can register to get one on the NZBN website:

  • Get your NZBN — there's one for every Kiwi business(external link) — NZBN

  • Be operating in a commercial environment;

  • Be a privately‐owned business or Māori Trust or incorporation under the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 or similar organisation managing Māori assets under multiple ownership;

  • Be a tourism business, which is defined as a business where at least 50% of its operational output is purchased by tourists (domestic or international), for example, Accommodation, Arts and Recreational Services, Food Services, Transport Services or Retail Trade. This can include service businesses whose output is purchased by tourism businesses;

  • Be physically based within at least 1 of the 5 districts: Queenstown Lakes District, Southland District, Kaikōura District, Mackenzie District, or Westland District (1 grant per business operation).

  • There is another eligibility criteria for implementation grants, see the Business Advice Implementation Grant information the Otago Chamber website.

Please note: Charitable Trusts, Incorporated Societies, Non-business entities, and Local and Central Governments are ineligible.

If you think this applies to you or you want to sound things out feel free to message Katy McIntyre or Lynda Henderson. If you haven't already signed up to RBP we will encourage you to do so here.