Finance & Funding

Grants for Tourism Businesses

A wide variety of sources provide funding and grants that may help your business.  Examples are: local authorities, One North East, Natural England, the Northumberland National Park, English Heritage, banks, private investors and investment firms.

How to find and apply for funding and support

Frequently fund providers use an intermediary to manage the application process - for public funds this is very often Business Link - so it isn't possible to apply directly to the fund provider.  Business Link and other organisations build databases of available funding for users to search.  Usually, as the fund is intended for a specific purpose like marketing or increasing employment, you are required to say what you activity you need the funding for in order to be able to search the listings.  Don't forget also that grants aren't the only option, there are also subsidised loans, venture capital, private investment, awards and competitions.

You can search for grants, loans, awards and sources of venture and private capital by:

• using the Business Link Grant and Award Finder
• using the Finance and Business database (just for North East England businesses)
• using the GRANTnet database

There are also lots of organisations that can help you identify and secure funding and give you face-to-face help with your application. Click here to view sources of help.

About grants

Grants are money that is 'awarded' to your business for specific purposes and under particular conditions. They do not have to be repaid. Usually the funds for the grants are from local authorities, regional development agencies, charities, sector bodies (like the Arts Council or the Learning Skills Council) and central government departments.

Grants are almost always discretionary - this means the body that manages the fund has the final say over who does and doesn't get awarded money. They base their decisions, usually, on the location of the business (or proposed business), the size (how many staff you employ or might employ), how much you need the money in order to proceed, how well thought out and planned your proposal is, how many jobs you might create or safeguard and what the return of your project might be to the local economy.

Usually a grant is not for a fixed amount of money - it is for a percentage of the eligible costs of your project, up to a maximum amount. Not all the costs of your project will be eligible - often only capital costs (the set up costs) are allowable, not ongoing costs like rent, rates, wages, utilities etc.

Sometimes grants are highly specific, for example to cover the costs of modifying your building in order to accommodate staff or customers with disabilities, or for research or the use of new technology.