Tourism Relief Fund (TRF)

Who is eligible?

• Incorporated tourism businesses, primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Not-for-profit incorporated organizations (including tourism associations and destination marketing organizations)
• Municipalities, municipal organizations, Crown corporations and related parties
• Indigenous/First Nation/Métis Settlement owned businesses or Indigenous organizations (including Indigenous-led not-for-profits)

Who is not eligible

• Restaurants (except in exceptional cases where they are considered anchor products attracting tourists to the region, assessed case-by-case)
• Retail sector businesses
• Hotel chains (except for Canadian-owned hotels considered as anchor products, assessed case-by-case)

Eligible expenses

• Costs related to creating, adapting, and enhancing protocols and permanent infrastructure to meet health and safety requirements for visitors and employees.
• Expenses associated with modernizing operations, attractions, greening initiatives, and online sales services.
• Costs for supporting businesses with local promotion of tourism products, including digital and virtual reality experiences.
• Expenditures for staff training to develop more inclusive tourism experiences, such as creating welcoming environments and gender-neutral facilities.
• Support for implementing tourism plans, creating or improving local assets, facilities, and key infrastructure.
• Expenses for developing and executing sustainable tourism plans based on research and market analysis.
• Costs related to the extension of product offerings to increase visitation during winter and shoulder seasons.
• Expenditures for activities to animate downtown cores, main streets, and business districts (e.g., public art, mixed-use spaces).
• Expenses for scale-up and market expansion activities for key tourism enterprises.

Eligible geographic areas

• Applicants located in the Prairies region of Canada (specifically Alberta, Manitoba, or Saskatchewan).

• Applicants can save their application in progress and return to complete it under the "My Applications" tab before submission.
• All required documents, including financial statements for the past two years and at least six months of interim statements, must be uploaded with the application.
• Economic and diversity outcomes should be substantiated with reasonable assumptions and supporting data within the application.
• A PDF summary of the application can be accessed after submission for record-keeping purposes.