Funding information and advice available for tourism businesses

Visit Wales is running a small-scale capital grants fund in 2025-2026 to support tourism attractions to invest in weather-proofing measures. 

Fund objectives

Tourism attractions highlight poor weather as a significant factor affecting trade. The Welsh Government’s Climate Adaptation Strategy outlines its approach to mitigating climate impacts, with the Business Adaptation Action Plan emphasizing the need to protect businesses and explore resilience funding. Our Tourism Strategy aims to boost visitor spending and promote year-round tourism but businesses report that adverse weather hinders these goals.

Purpose of fund

Periods of poor weather negatively affect the operation of tourism attraction businesses in two main ways: 

1. by preventing the business from operating as normal (for example, if a facility becomes water-logged) 
2. by impacting negatively on the visitor experience and/or discouraging visits. 

Weather-proofing measures supported by this Fund will be aimed at:

• mitigating these impacts by helping to support the business’s economic resilience and adaptability,
• strengthen the climate resilience of the business, 
• help enable the business to offer its best possible welcome to visitors during the 2025 Year of Croeso.

What will it fund?

The Fund is offering capital grants of between £5,000 and £20,000, which must be used before 31 March 2026. No revenue costs will be considered. The grant can support up to 75% of the costs of the weather-proofing measures (or up to £20,000 if this is less than 75% of the costs).

The remainder of the costs must be financed by the business from its own funds or private sources of finance. Applicants cannot use any other form of grant or funding from any public sector organisation as match funding. 

Projects must be completed, full spend incurred and claimed by 31 March 2026.

Eligible weather-proofing measures will include:

• measures which mitigate the impact of poor weather on the business
• measures which mitigate the impact of poor weather on the visitor experience

Please refer to the Guidance Notes for further information on eligibility.

Who is eligible?

Tourism attraction businesses in Wales which: 

• are accredited as visitor attractions under the VAQAS scheme (or are eligible and willing to seek VAQAS accreditation as a condition of grant) 
• are micro, small or medium sized enterprises (employing up to 249 employees) 
• have been trading for at least one year as a limited company, partnership or sole trader or social enterprise 
• receive visitors in a setting where poor weather can impact on the business performance and the visitor experience 

The closing date for this round was 22 May 2025.

If you have any questions please email WeatherProofingFund@gov.wales or call 03000 622418.

Brilliant Basics is a capital fund delivering small-scale tourism infrastructure improvements across Wales. 

Who could apply?
This year’s fund was open to:

• Local Authorities
• National Park Authorities

The purpose of the fund was to deliver improvements in basic but essential visitor infrastructure at strategic tourism destinations across Wales to ensure that all visitors have a positive and memorable experience throughout all aspects of their stay.

For this round of funding, all applications must meet priority (1) below and at least one of the other 3 key priorities:

1. Environmentally sustainable destinations and responding to the climate emergency. Develop new, or transform existing, infrastructure to make the destination more sustainable, helping to reduce the carbon footprint.
2. Alleviate pressure points at ‘hot spot’ locations and supporting high quality tourism destinations. 
3. Inclusive tourism and enhancing accessibility. Support projects that remove obstacles and barriers and improve access to facilities for all.
4. Enhancing the visitor offer, for example, through developing product experiences that provide a sense of place such as event infrastructure, interpretation schemes, trails and projects that showcase local food, heritage, culture and the Welsh language.

This was a capital fund. Revenue costs were not considered. 
Total grant available was £300,000 with a maximum intervention rate of 80%. There was no minimum grant amount. 

For this round, applicants were given additional time to deliver projects (if required). If you were successful at EOI stage (stage 1) you were invited to submit an application (stage 2). Applicants will be informed if their stage 2 application is successful from 01 April 2025. 

For one year projects full spend must be incurred and claimed by 01 March 2026. 

If a project can justify the need for a longer timescale the project can be financed across 2 financial years. Applicants therefore needed to clearly demonstrate a cost profile for 2025-26 and 2026-27. Projects must complete by 31 January 2027. 

The closing date for this round was 22 November 2024. 

Any questions about the fund can be sent to RegionalTourism@gov.wales.

Offers made April 2025 to January 2027

The Welsh Government, in partnership with the Development Bank of Wales, has launched a new £50m fund, Wales Tourism Investment Fund (WTIF) which brings together both commercial and grant funding into one combined package of financial support to provide capital investment for the sector.  

Fund objectives

In order to maintain and develop Wales’ position in the hugely competitive global tourism market, we need to continue to invest in our tourism product. 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.

Purpose of fund

• To provide continued access to finance for tourism projects in Wales
• To support the transition of the tourism sector from grant reliance to commercial loan serviceability
• Allow public funding to be mobilised in an area that can create significant impact on the economy
• To be able to support potentially substantial strategic investments as required.

What will it fund?

• The new fund will provide patient capital to tourism businesses of between £100,000 and £5,000,000 for qualifying projects
• Repayment term is between 10-15 years, and can include seasonality payment breaks
• It will provide increased flexibility of funding
• Funding will be made available from the outset of a project and tranched through the development phase
• Commercial loan and qualifying grant payments will be blended in order to reduce the overall cost of the finance.

Who is eligible?

The fund comprises a mix of repayable and non-repayable finance, targeting eligible capital investment projects in the tourism sector in Wales. It can be used either to upgrade existing, or create new, high quality assets in the tourism sector.

In order to be considered for support from the Wales Tourism Investment Fund an applicant will need to:

• Commit to supporting the Welsh Government’s Prosperity for All strategy and demonstrate a commitment to the four requirements of the Economic Contract
• Be based in Wales and demonstrate how the project will stimulate growth in new and existing markets and create and/or safeguard jobs
• Demonstrate financial viability and repayment over the term of the funding package.

Next Steps

The fund includes a two stage application process. The first stage includes an Expression of Interest form and if successful at this stage, the business will then be invited to make a full application. Frequently Asked Questions are also available.  

If you are interested in receiving more information on the WTIF, please email WTIF@gov.wales or call 03000 622418.

Offers made 01 April 2020 to 31 March 2024