Tourism Ministry Elects Independent Evaluation Committee To Hand Out €4.5 Million In Event Grants
Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli announced the appointment of an independent evaluation committee to hand out €4.5 million in event grants to organisations.
“The way by which the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) gives sponsorships is changing,” Farrugia Portelli said. “Serious and transparent mechanisms will now be adopted.”
This comes after The Shift extensively reported how Lionel Gerada’s presence in the MTA’s Sponsorships Committee made a level playing field in the industry “impossible”.
The evaluation committee will be made up of five members; a chairperson from the MTA who will be chairing the process and a secretary who will not be voting, and three independent voting members,
Events benefitting from these funds will be able to apply for one of two strands of the support scheme.
The first, titled ‘Major Tourism Events Support Scheme’ (MTESS) is for major events taking place in Malta, i.e. events which will pose as the main reason why tourists visit our islands.
The second, titled ‘Distinctive Tourism Events Support Scheme’ (DTESS) is split into two sub-categories – one for community events and the other for live events.
MTESS events that are approved by the committee are entitled to a grant amounting to a minimum of €100,000. On the other hand, approved community events and live events can benefit from a maximum of €25,000 and €100,000 respectively.
The call for applications will open on 14th August at 2pm. Any late applications will not be considered by the MTA.
Following the application process’ completion, results will be made available to the public on the MTA’s web platform.
Applicants who are unsatisfied with their result will be given the opportunity to re-submit their application to a different review committee.
The Tourism Minister went on to speak up against organisations that have put unnecessary pressures on the MTA to secure funding, saying that this will no longer be tolerated by the authority.
“We’ve had situations where organisations placed the MTA logo on their posters without our permission so that we’d feel obliged to fund them.”
Applications for these grants can be sent on [email protected]. Further information is available on the Malta Tourism Authority’s website.