The Andrews Labor Government today launched its special Bushfire Recovery round of the Regional Events Fund.

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Martin Pakula announced in Milawa that the dedicated Bushfire Recovery round was accepting applications from event organisers who could demonstrate how they would attract visitors from outside their region, to hasten recovery from the effects of the summer’s fires.

The Bushfire Recovery round is open to events in 15 local government areas declared under Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements: Ararat, Alpine, Ballarat, East Gippsland, Glenelg, Golden Plains, Indigo, Mansfield, Northern Grampians, Pyrenees, Southern Grampians, Towong, Wangaratta, Wellington and Wodonga.

Visit Victoria manages the Regional Events Fund on behalf of the Labor Government and has made changes to the standard guidelines and processes in order to fast-track support for these communities.

The Bushfire Recovery round is open until 27 March with grants of up to $20,000 available for eligible events, and applications will be assessed as they are submitted. The general Regional Events Fund remains open to applications from across the state.

In addition to the Bushfire Recovery events support, the Labor Government is backing the regional tourism industry and local communities with a range of initiatives, including:

• Up to $2 million in marketing to be delivered by Visit Victoria to encourage travel in regional communities.
• Business & Sport for Bushfire Recovery, a program which has seen 215 organisations pledge to hold conferences and events in regional Victoria
• Grants of $200,000 for each of Tourism North East and Destination Gippsland.

For information on Regional Events Fund applications, go to corporate.visitvictoria.com/events/regional-events.