Queensland Destination Events Funding

Events play a key role in fostering regional tourism and economic development. Tourism is an essential industry to many rural and regional centres, ensuring economic stability, and events can be a cost-effective way of promoting a region and its attractions – as an event grows, it attracts tourists in its own right.

The positive economic impact and interest in a community that a successful regional event can provide not only helps to build a sense of local pride but can also foster confidence and strengthen the community as a whole.

The Queensland Destination Events Program (QDEP), formerly the Regional Development Program (RDP), seeks to leverage the crucial link between events and the destinations in which they are staged, extending the flow of the economic, marketing and social benefits of events throughout metropolitan and regional Queensland.

Within this context, the aims and objectives of the QDEP are as follows:

• Generate local economic activity and development in the host destination
• Attract external visitation to the destination
• Drive social and community outcomes for the host destination, noting the important link between community outcomes and economic benefits
• Enhance the profile and appeal of the host destination

Type of funding available to events

The QDEP offers two funding options for regional events:

• Destination Event funding – single year funding for developing events seeking growth ($10,000 – $25,000 per year)
• Significant Event funding – single year or up to three years of funding for events that can demonstrate a strong track record of growth or growth potential ($25,000 – $100,000 per year)

How the funding can be used

• Marketing costs
• Strategic plan development
• Engagement of short-term specialised personnel
• Hire of temporary infrastructure

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply for funding through the QDEP, an event must meet the following key objectives:

Destination event funding

• The event must take place wholly within Queensland
• The applicant must be able to demonstrate the historical size of the event in terms of:
  • Audience
  • Spectator numbers
  • Participant numbers, and/or
  • Media profile
• The applicant must be able to demonstrate the event’s capacity to grow against the baseline