A new grant and mentorship program aimed at improving tourism has made its way to Chatham-Kent.
The “Spark” Mentorships & Grants Program was launched in the municipality on Thursday to encourage entrepreneurs, small businesses, and non-profits to apply for funding to develop their tourism ideas for the region.
The program, which is run by the Ontario Tourism Innovation Lab out of Windsor, is a non-profit initiative and anyone over 18 can fill out an application before the deadline on November 29. Then the top five are chosen to pitch their tourism ideas on January 8. The three best will then be selected to each receive a $3,000 grant to help get their ideas off the ground.
"The program itself is intended to help spark new tourism ideas for the region and provide a source of financial support through a $3,000 grant, as well as tourism mentorship to help the selected candidates take their new tourism ideas to the next level of development," said Justin Lafontaine, program lead for the Ontario Tourism Innovation Lab. "It's the mentorship that people do really value. We're excited to bring this to Chatham-Kent and to inspire some really great, new innovative ideas here."
The Ontario Tourism Innovation Lab launched last year in Windsor-Essex, along with the "Spark" program, which is now expanding following its success in that region. The program has already been launched in Bruce County and Northeastern Ontario as well, with other regions in the works.
"We're really focused on inspiring people to come forward with a new tourism idea. What that could be is a new event, a new experience... it can be a partnership between different stakeholders," said Lafontaine. "Tourism covers a lot of aspects of the region from transportation [to] travel, tours, accommodations, experiences, small businesses, and things like that."
For more information and for details on how to apply for a program, click here.
