Tourism Infrastructure Fund: Application and assessment process

When to apply

Applications for Tourism Infrastructure Fund Round 6 have now closed.

How to apply

Before you apply to the Tourism Infrastructure Fund, please read the following guidelines to make sure your organisation and project meet the eligibility criteria.

Eligibility and assessment

All applications to the fund go through an eligibility and criteria assessment to make sure funding:

• goes to councils that are most in need; that is, most financially constrained
• that the level of co-funding put forward by applicants is sufficient, taking into account its financial circumstances.

We carry out the assessment in consultation with other agencies as appropriate.

We interpret ‘region’ as the area for which the applicant (eg, local council) is responsible. We will refer to the following territorial authority level data:

• Guest nights to rating unit ratio
  To determine the ratio, guest night numbers can be obtained from the Accommodation Data Programme.
  Accommodation Data Programme reporting(external link)
  Rating unit figures will be sourced from TAs’ annual reports (note this is the number of rateable properties and not the population figure).

• ECT Tourism Revenue
  To determine revenue from tourism, MBIE will use the Tourism Electronic Card Transaction (TECT) for the different TAs.
  Tourism Electronic Card Transactions (TECTs)

• Other data sources
  Applicants are encouraged to use the TECTs or any other data from reliable sources that supports their application.

Financial assessment

All eligible applications to the fund go through a financial assessment to check:

• the council's financial position
• other projects that have been funded by council
• the potential impact should the project proceed and funding be denied eg, whether the council would be required to take on more debt to address the identified problem
• the council's project management capability and financial management history to check it can deliver on its project proposals.

How the financial assessment is done is up to the independent assessors, but can include a review of:

• recent rates increases
• debt levels in relation to ratepayer base
• the council's history of project delivery.

Other considerations include:

• whether applicants have considered a range of alternative solutions. Applicants should describe the alternative sources they have considered to fund their project, and why that funding is not available, (eg, an application for alternative funding was rejected)
• innovative solutions that enhance productivity, reduce costs (operating or capital), leverage economics of scale and/or raise revenue
• whole-of-life costs to demonstrate the proposed solution offers value for money
• the need for higher quality infrastructure to enhance the visitor experience, to support higher value visitors.

The Tourism Infrastructure Panel

A strategic advisory panel:

• considers the eligibility and criteria assessment and recommends a package of the projects it believes will best meet the objectives of the Priorities Statement for the round.

The Minister of Tourism has final approval of successful applications over $500K, the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has final approval for applications under $500K.

Tourism Infrastructure Fund Panel

Unsuccessful applications

We can provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants on request.