Grow Cultural Tourism Fund

The Grow Cultural Tourism Fund is a key program of the Queensland Government’s Grow 2022-2026 (PDF) (1.89 MB), the second action plan for Creative Together 2020-2030.

The Fund seeks to enable the growth of arts and cultural events and experiences across the state by strengthening the local arts sector’s capacity and activating communities to achieve the state’s vision of establishing Queensland as an iconic cultural tourism destination – a place visited for its arts, culture, and heritage.

The Fund will also support delivery of Towards Tourism 2032, and its vision for Queensland to be Australia’s destination of choice for domestic and global visitors seeking the world’s best experiences by 2032.

The Building Bush Tourism Fund and the Growing Future Tourism Fund also support the Queensland Government’s Toward Tourism 2032 strategy, and are available to eligible tourism operators, not-for-profit organisations and local governments to deliver new and enhanced tourism infrastructure or experiences.

Objectives

The Grow Cultural Tourism Fund:

• supports the development of new arts and cultural events and experiences that can drive cultural tourism outcomes for Queensland
• enables the expansion of traditionally non-arts events to feature significant Queensland arts and cultural programming
• boosts existing arts and cultural events to drive increased visitation and support inclusive participation
• provides new employment opportunities for Queensland’s arts and cultural workers
• builds the capacity of communities to deliver cultural events that drive regional development through cultural tourism

The Fund welcomes applications from Queensland events and festivals with a strong track record of attracting audiences (must show year on year growth), as well as those exploring concepts for new festivals and events. During Round One the Fund will prioritise supporting opportunities for activity outside of South East Queensland*.

*For the purpose of this fund, South East Queensland is defined as: Brisbane, Ipswich, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Moreton Bay, Logan and Redland Local Government Areas.

Funding

The Fund contributes towards the costs of:

• Stream 1: A feasibility study for a new cultural tourism focussed event or festival; or
• Stream 2: Embedding Queensland arts and cultural programming into existing non-arts and cultural events (whose primary purpose is not presenting arts focussed events) that grows the scale and impact of the event or festival; or
• Stream 3: Increasing the reach and impact of existing arts and cultural events or festivals of scale.

View the full Grow Cultural Tourism fund guidelines for more information.  Applicants may only receive one Grow Cultural Tourism Fund grant per calendar year. 

Funding available

Proposed new cultural tourism focussed events and festivals can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $30,000 to support costs associated in the development of a feasibility study to explore the new event or festival concept.

Non-arts events can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $50,000 to develop and embed Queensland arts and cultural programming within an event or festival that activates locations, attracts new audiences, builds local capacity and employment, and provides communities and visitors with access to local, high-quality arts and cultural activity.

Established signature cultural events can apply for matched funding (1:1) up to $80,000 to support the engagement of creative expertise (individual or company) to produce, present, and promote new arts programming and/or initiatives that will increase the scale and impact of established signature cultural events or festivals.

Frequency

How to apply

1. Visit our supporting documents page to view the Grow Cultural Tourism Fund guidelines.

2. Complete the online application form. 

Arts Queensland uses Smartygrants, an online grant application system. For support with technical issues related to the online application, please contact an Arts Queensland Grants Officer on telephone (07) 3034 4016 or toll free 1800 175 531 or email investment@arts.qld.gov.au