What is the Wales Tourism Investment Fund and the Micro Small Business Fund?
The Welsh Government, in partnership with the Development Bank of Wales, launched the £50m Wales Tourism Investment Fund (WTIF) bringing together both commercial and grant funding into one combined package of financial support to provide capital investment for the sector.
The key objective of the Fund will be to help finance capital investment in tourism projects which have the opportunity to create positive impact on growing the sector and the Welsh economy. This fund –
- will provide patient capital to tourism businesses of between £100,000 and £5,000,000 for qualifying projects
- has repayment term of between 10-15 years, and can include seasonality payment breaks
- will provide increased flexibility of funding
- will have funding available from the outset of a project and tranched through the development phase
- will blend commercial loan and qualifying grant payments in order to reduce the overall cost of the finance.
The Micro Small Business Fund (MSBF) is an investment fund targeting eligible capital investment projects in the tourism sector in Wales. It can be used either to upgrade existing or create new high quality product.
Supported through the Welsh Government Rural Communities Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 and funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and Welsh Government, MSBF is available for micro to small size businesses with fewer than 50 FTE employees.
Support of between £25,000 and £500,000 will be considered, in order to:
- create and safeguard jobs
- realise economic benefit and growth
- deliver quality, innovation and a sense of place.
