p>Funding of $250,000 from the Federal Government will make it easier for people with special needs to visit Sovereign Hill and stay in accommodation at the venue while they tour other attractions in the region.
The funding, under the first round of the Government’s Tourism Industry Regional Development Fund (TIRF), was announced today by the Member for Ballarat, Catherine King.
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Funding of $250,000 from the Federal Government will make it easier for people with special needs to visit Sovereign Hill and stay in accommodation at the venue while they tour other attractions in the region.
The funding, under the first round of the Government’s Tourism Industry Regional Development Fund (TIRF), was announced today by the Member for Ballarat, Catherine King.
It is one of 65 tourism projects across Australia being offered $13.1 million in funding under the TIRF program, including eight in Victoria.
Ms King said the funding will be used to update and adapt the Comfort Inn, Sovereign Hill to give people with special access requirements the chance to engage in the cultural experiences at the museum and visit other attractions across the region.
“The project will renovate six motel rooms to maximise the comfort and independence of guests with accessibility requirements and renovate existing motels spaces to create facilities for meetings and conferences,” Ms King said.
“It is important that tourism operators make every effort to ensure everyone has access to their attractions and can be appropriately accommodated during their travels.
“I know Sovereign Hill has worked hard to ensure this is the case and the Government is pleased to be able to support this latest effort to make this nationally important living museum even more user-friendly for people with special needs.”
Ms King said the Australian Government has allocated $48.5 million over four years to the TIRF Grants Program as part of its commitment to increasing the quality and range of visitor experiences in the regional Australia” Ms King said.
“This another excellent example of the Government’s commitment to regional Australia through investments across a range of industry sectors,” Ms King said.
“Sovereign Hill, along with all other successful applicants, demonstrated a strong understanding of how their project will contribute to the goals of the Government’s Tourism 2020 strategy.
“They identified market expectations and developed projects that will increase and extend visitation to regional areas and help support the Tourism 2020 objective to double overnight visitor expenditure to $140 billion by 2020.
“Funding amounts of between $50,000 and $250,000 on a matched dollar-for-dollar basis are provided to each successful applicant and will deliver a total investment amount of over $141 million for the industry.”
A list of successful grants can be accessed online at www.ret.gov.au/tirfgrants.