Funding information and advice available for tourism businesses

For general information and advice about finding finance and choosing the right type go to the main Business Wales website.

For tourism funding specifically, our main investment fund is the Wales Tourism Investment Fund (WTIF) and Brilliant Basics.

You can view details of historic funding schemes and projects that have received investment from the Welsh Government on the projects supported page.

Year of Croeso: Weather-proofing Fund for Small Tourism & Hospitality Businesses 2025-2026

Visit Wales is launching another round of funding under the Weather-Proofing Scheme offer-ing grants to Small Tourism and Hospitality businesses to improve trading conditions and provide a warm welcome to visitors, whatever the weather.

Fund Objectives
Recent feedback from tourism and hospitality businesses is telling us that poor and unpredictable weather is one of the main reasons for having fewer visitors. Many more guests are now booking last minute or cancelling trips depending on the weather forecast. Businesses and destinations that can offer great experiences in all weather will be more resilient and attractive to visitors.

Purpose of the Fund
We will fund weather-proofing measures that will:

Improve the visitor experience in all weather
Help your business grow and become more resilient
Enable you to offer the best possible welcome to visitors during the Year of Croeso

What will it fund?
Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 are available to support the installation of weather-proofing measures, such as new covered outdoor areas, dining pods, surfacing and drainage as well as equipment and facilities that offer enhanced experiences in all weather.

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). No revenue costs will be considered.

Projects must be completed, paid for and claimed by 13 March 2026.

Who is eligible?
Your business must:

Be a tourism or hospitality business based in Wales - check the list of eligible business activity in the guidance.
Employ between 9–49 permanent salaried employees.
Have been trading for at least one year.
Have a website, social media accounts or a travel site listing such as TripAdvisor to show you attract visitors from outside your local area.

NOTE: Businesses that received funding in Phase 1 are not eligible for Phase 2.

Please read the Guidance Notes for further information and to download the application form.

The closing date for this round is 1pm 27 October 2025.

If you have any questions, please email WeatherProofingFund@gov.wales.

Brilliant Basics Fund
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:

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.

Alleviate pressure points at ‘hot spot’ locations and supporting high quality tourism destinations.

Inclusive tourism and enhancing accessibility. Support projects that remove obstacles and barriers and improve access to facilities for all.

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
Wales Tourism Investment Fund (WTIF)
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