tourism and events queensland grants

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• Tourism and Events Queensland

Current Rounds

Qdep round 28 (destination), qdep round 28 (significant - eoi), teq business events acquisition and leveraging fund - current year.

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• Telephone: (07) 3535 3535
• Email: [email protected]

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• Telephone: (03) 9320 6888
• Email: [email protected]
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Tourism grants and funding

Find out what support is available for your tourism business. Check available grants, business workshops, mentoring programs and regional support.

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• Updated: 24 Apr 2024
• Reviewed: 23 Apr 2024

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Grow Cultural Tourism Fund

The Grow Cultural Tourism Fund is a key program of the Queensland Government’s Grow 2022-2026  (PDF) (1.89 MB), the second action plan for Creative Together 2020-2030 .

The Fund seeks to enable the growth of arts and cultural events and experiences across the state by strengthening the local arts sector’s capacity and activating communities to achieve the state’s vision of establishing Queensland as an iconic cultural tourism destination – a place visited for its arts, culture, and heritage.

The Fund will also support delivery of Towards Tourism 2032 , and its vision for Queensland to be Australia’s destination of choice for domestic and global visitors seeking the world’s best experiences by 2032.

The Building Bush Tourism Fund and the Growing Future Tourism Fund also support the Queensland Government’s Toward Tourism 2032 strategy , and are available to eligible tourism operators, not-for-profit organisations and local governments to deliver new and enhanced tourism infrastructure or experiences.

The Grow Cultural Tourism Fund:

• supports the development of new arts and cultural events and experiences that can drive cultural tourism outcomes for Queensland
• enables the expansion of traditionally non-arts events to feature significant Queensland arts and cultural programming
• boosts existing arts and cultural events to drive increased visitation and support inclusive participation
• provides new employment opportunities for Queensland’s arts and cultural workers
• builds the capacity of communities to deliver cultural events that drive regional development through cultural tourism

The Fund welcomes applications from Queensland events and festivals with a strong track record of attracting audiences (must show year on year growth), as well as those exploring concepts for new festivals and events. During Round One the Fund will prioritise supporting opportunities for activity outside of South East Queensland*.

*For the purpose of this fund, South East Queensland is defined as: Brisbane, Ipswich, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Moreton Bay, Logan and Redland Local Government Areas.

The Fund contributes towards the costs of:

• Stream 1:  A feasibility study for a new cultural tourism focussed event or festival; or
• Stream 2:  Embedding Queensland arts and cultural programming into existing non-arts and cultural events (whose primary purpose is not presenting arts focussed events) that grows the scale and impact of the event or festival; or
• Stream 3:  Increasing the reach and impact of existing arts and cultural events or festivals of scale.

View the full Grow Cultural Tourism fund guidelines for more information.  Applicants may only receive one Grow Cultural Tourism Fund grant per calendar year. 

Funding available

Proposed new cultural tourism focussed events and festivals can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $30,000 to support costs associated in the development of a feasibility study to explore the new event or festival concept.

Non-arts events can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $50,000 to develop and embed Queensland arts and cultural programming within an event or festival that activates locations, attracts new audiences, builds local capacity and employment, and provides communities and visitors with access to local, high-quality arts and cultural activity.

Established signature cultural events can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $80,000 to support the engagement of creative expertise (individual or company) to produce, present, and promote new arts programming and/or initiatives that will increase the scale and impact of established signature cultural events or festivals.

How to apply

1. Visit our  supporting documents page  to view the Grow Cultural Tourism Fund guidelines.

2. Complete the online application form. 

Arts Queensland uses Smartygrants, an online grant application system.  For support with technical issues related to the online application, please contact an Arts Queensland Grants Officer on telephone (07) 3034 4016 or toll free 1800 175 531 or email [email protected]

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Grow Cultural Tourism Fund

The Grow Cultural Tourism Fund (the Fund) seeks to enable the growth of arts and cultural events and experiences across the state by strengthening the local arts sector’s capacity and activating communities to achieve the state’s vision of establishing Queensland as an iconic cultural tourism destination – a place visited for its arts, culture and heritage.

The Fund will support delivery of  Towards Tourism 2032 , and its vision for Queensland to be Australia’s destination of choice for domestic and global visitors seeking the world’s best experiences by 2032.

The  Building Bush Tourism Fund and the  Growing Future Tourism Fund also support the Queensland Government’s  Toward Tourism 2032 strategy , and are available to eligible tourism operators, not-for-profit organisations and local governments to deliver new and enhanced tourism infrastructure or experiences.

The Grow Cultural Tourism Fund:

• Supports the development of new arts and cultural events and experiences that can drive cultural tourism outcomes for Queensland.
• Enables the expansion of traditionally non-arts events to feature significant Queensland arts and cultural programming.
• Boosts existing arts and cultural events to drive increased visitation and support inclusive participation
• Provides new employment opportunities for Queensland’s arts and cultural workers.
• Builds the capacity of communities to deliver cultural events that drive regional development through cultural tourism.

Proposed new cultural tourism focused events and festivals can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $30,000 to support costs associated in the development of a feasibility study to explore the new event or festival concept.

Growing arts and cultural programming for non-arts events can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $50,000  to develop sustainable Queensland arts and cultural programming within an event or festival that activates locations, attracts new audiences, builds local capacity and employment, and provides communities and visitors with access to local, high-quality arts and cultural activity.

Existing signature cultural events can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $80,000  to support the employment of creative expertise to produce, present, and promote arts new arts programming and/or initiatives that will increase the scale and impact of existing signature cultural events or festivals.

Applications from all Queensland events and festivals are welcome as well as those exploring ideas for new festivals and events. However, during 2023 and 2024 the Fund will seek to prioritise supporting opportunities for activity outside of South East Queensland.

*For the purpose of this fund, South East Queensland is defined as: Brisbane, Ipswich, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Moreton Bay, Logan and Redland Local Government Areas.

How to apply

Visit the Arts Queensland website for more information and to apply.

The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory

Budget supports tourism, sport and innovation.

Published Tuesday, 13 June, 2023 at 03:40 PM

JOINT STATEMENT

Premier and Minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment The Honourable Cameron Dick

Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympics and Paralympics Sport and Engagement The Honourable Stirling Hinchliffe

• $125 million for Tourism and Events Queensland  
• More funds to support inclusive grassroots community sports infrastructure for the athletes of tomorrow
• Innovation commitment continues with additional funds for female founders and venture capital development funds

The ongoing transformation of Queensland’s rebounding visitor economy is again a key focus of the 2023-24 State Budget.

The Palaszczuk Government has committed to increasing Tourism and Events Queensland’s base funding to $125 million-a-year for the next four years as it works towards ambitious goals for the state’s tourism and events industry.

An aspirational industry goal of achieving $44 billion in overnight visitor expenditure was set in November and the Palaszczuk Government is backing its lead marketing agency to drive demand.

Other Tourism highlights in the 2023-24 Budget include:

• $20 million in 2023-24 to progress Towards Tourism 2032, including the Tourism Experience and Infrastructure Grants program, designed to support tourism experience development in priority areas over two rounds. It will focus on First Nations, sustainability, eco/nature, accessibility and paleo.  
• $12 million over 2 years to support the 2023 Year of Accessible Tourism activities, increasing awareness and capability and for visitor experience development.

The Budget includes tourism business development and continues to support tourism infrastructure and attraction investment.

  Meanwhile, the Palaszczuk Government will continue to lead Queensland’s sport and active recreation industry and support pathways to assist Queenslanders to reach their full sporting potential.

The Budget will deliver $10 million for female facilities and inclusive infrastructure for clubs, sporting organisations and councils including wider pathways, ramps, upgraded toilets and change rooms.

A $2 million investment over 2 years will produce a state-wide audit of facilities for scouts and girl guides and start work on the refurbishments and upgrades that are most needed including modernising huts and dens and improving disability access.

A further $4.8 million over 2 years is allocated for SwimStart, which is an extension of FairPlay, making more than 30,000 vouchers available to eligible families for children up to the age of four to learn to swim.

The Palaszczuk Government is committed to innovation and will work with venture capital funds to provide start-ups with greater access to early-stage capital, which will support them to scale up and accelerate growth.

The new Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund (QVCDF) will build on the success of the Advance Queensland initiative, which has supported more than 28,000 good jobs across the state and leveraged over $1 billion from industry partners.

This fund will increase support for innovative early-stage Queensland companies and help Queensland startups become investment ready.

The Palaszczuk Government is also backing in women in business through an additional $5 million over 2 years to expand the Female Founders program to focus on growing the number of women entrepreneurs in Queensland’s innovation ecosystem.

Quotes attributable to the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk:

“Tourism, sport, and innovation are all key planks in supporting and growing a strong Queensland economy.

“In these sectors the budget targets investment, not just aimed at growing industry, but also strengthening our communities through partnerships and by being more inclusive.

“It’s through this lens that the budget is most impactful, in identifying the area’s we need to invest in, to both secure good jobs while protecting and enhancing our Queensland lifestyle as we grow.”

Quotes attributable to Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick:

“The resilience of the Queensland tourism industry to rebound after the pandemic is remarkable, and this $125 million-a-year for the next four years will help the Government reach its bold ambitions to rebuild the sector even stronger.

“Innovation is central to developing our state’s jobs of the future and the new $150 million Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund is aimed at doing just that.”

Quotes attributable to Innovation Minister Stirling Hinchliffe:

“The future is bright for our tourism industry as Queensland continues to hold our nation-leading position as Australia’s most popular holiday destination for domestic visitors.

“We are now focused on and determined to rebuild our international markets, not just getting them back to pre-pandemic numbers but growing them even stronger.

“Queensland had the best and quickest recovery from the pandemic than any other state, but we’ve always said we want to rebuild better and by locking in this increased funding for the next four years we’re backing TEQ to support the industry to do just that.

“Better designed female facilities and inclusive sporting infrastructure gives more Queenslanders the opportunity to participate in sport and other physical activities.

“We are looking for shovel-ready projects to upgrade facilities for scouts and girl guides to improve community access and to make things that much easier for our amazing volunteers.

“SwimStart will bring learn-to-swim classes within reach for 30,000 toddlers, helping low-income families with cost-of-living pressures and giving the swimmers of tomorrow a head start.”

“This $75 million of cornerstone funding into venture capital and accelerator programs, matched or better by the private sector, is all about creating the Queensland jobs of the future.

“This builds on the latest $142 million investment into the Advance Queensland - Innovation for a Future Economy 2022–2032 Roadmap – from last year’s budget.

“The roadmap increases investment so that companies can start, stay and grow in Queensland and build a well-connected, inclusive and thriving innovation ecosystem.”

Media contact – Bill Walker 0437 859 987

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Tourism Funding Initiatives

The Queensland Government has announced the second phase of the Queensland Economic Recovery Strategy: Unite and Recover for Queensland Jobs and the $25 million Growing Tourism Infrastructure (GTI) Fund is accepting project registrations to fast-track new and enhanced tourism infrastructure projects.

The Queensland Economic Strategy has further direct and indirect measures to support the tourism sector. These included:

• Tourism: $15 million in funding for airline route support to further encourage domestic tourism.
• $8.93 million works and jobs boost to provide visitor infrastructure upgrades and enhancements to re-energise nature-based tourism .
• Small Business: An additional $100 million in funding for the Small Business COVID-19 Adaption Grant Program, with grants of up to $10,000 to be divided equally amongst regional Queensland and south-east Queensland.
• Arts and Culture: A $22.5 million package to help support the recovery of the arts and culture sector, including $11.3 million to offset revenue losses in music and performing arts venues.

The overarching announcement around the new initiatives can be found here. Media Statement – next phase of economic recovery announced .

The $25 million Growing Tourism Infrastructure (GTI) Fund is accepting project registrations to fast-track new and enhanced tourism infrastructure projects.

To be considered under this Fund projects must meet all the following key priorities:

• create new jobs in construction and ongoing operational phases;
• be shovel ready (i.e. commence construction within two to three months of approval and be fully completed by 30 June 2022);
• build sustainable new and improved infrastructure and products that enhance the tourism experience;
• increase overnight visitor numbers and expenditure; and
• deliver regional economic benefits.

[TTNQ Fortnightly Pulse article – 24 June 2020]

#ExploreTNQ

Accessibility, accessibility modes, online dictionary, readable experience, visually pleasing experience, easy orientation.

Tropical North Queensland Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement

• tourism.tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au
• May 3, 2024

Compliance status

We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.

Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Disability profiles supported in our website

• Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
• Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
• Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
• ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
• Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
• Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

• Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
• Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
• Animations – person with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
• Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
• Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
• Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
• Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

Browser and assistive technology compatibility

We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).

Notes, comments, and feedback

Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to

Boosting Accessible Tourism Experiences Grants

Funding to support the development and enhancement of tourism products and smaller scale infrastructure to make it more accessible..

Applications for the Boosting Accessible Tourism Experiences Grant closed on 31 August 2023. 

The $1 million Boosting Accessible Tourism Experiences Grant provides funding support for sole traders and small tourism and events businesses to develop and/or enhance accessibility.

It is part of the Queensland Government’s $12 million investment to support delivery of a package of initiatives to enhance and develop accessible tourism products and to raise awareness about accessible tourism experiences in Queensland.

For more information about the Boosting Accessible Tourism Experience Scheme visit the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport website.

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• Funding programs

Accessible Tourism Enablers Grant

Supporting disability service providers to develop accessible tools for use by tourism businesses.

The Accessible Tourism Enablers Grant supports not-for-profit disability peak organisations and accessible or disability-specific service organisations to develop and/or enhance products and services for use by tourism and event businesses.

It is part of the Queensland Government’s $12 million in new funding to support delivery of a package of initiatives to enhance and develop accessible tourism projects and to raise awareness about accessible tourism experiences in Queensland.

The Year of Accessible Tourism supports key actions in the Towards Tourism 2032 – Transforming Queensland’s visitor economy future, a tourism industry strategy .

Applications for the Grant are now closed.

The key objectives of the Grant are to support projects that:

• increase the number of tourism and events businesses that are delivering exceptional and accessible customer experiences
• have a positive impact for the community through improved accessibility to visitors
• support and provide opportunities to the tourism and events industry to make improvements to accessibility for visitors and workers with disability
• provide resources, products and services freely or at low cost for Queensland tourism and events businesses and have a benefit.

The Accessible Tourism Enablers Grant guidelines (PDF, 557.4KB) contain detailed information regarding the grant.

More information

For more information, email the Tourism Division team .

Last updated: 25 Jul 2023