Impulse budget for destination development

06-02-2023

Destinations that want to take steps in destination management can apply for co-financing from the new impulse budget. They can then get started with the recently developed Guidance on Destination Management. This guideline was developed by NBTC together with CELTH and other task force parties. CELTH is also a member of the committee that assesses applications for the impulse budget. In 2023, €400,000 will be available in three rounds for destination management pilots.

Destination management guideline

The Destination Management Guideline was developed in 2022 on behalf of the Hospitality Economy Taskforce. The Destination Management Guideline brings together the ideas of Perspective 2030, the advice of the Rli on Valuable Tourism and the Conscious Destinations Agenda of CELTH and offers practical tools to get started with these ideas. This guideline supports parties in shaping destination management at national, provincial, regional, and local level and discusses the various components of destination management, the available instruments and the parties that play a role in this. The guideline describes seven steps that are essential in the development of a conscious destination.

Impulse budget

The impulse budget is intended for the implementation of destination management by local authorities, DMOs and CMOs. They can carry out pilots on various aspects of destination management based on co-financing. This provides concrete assistance to regions and cities in the implementation of destination management. The scheme is implemented by NBTC. The allocated impulse budget is a maximum of 35% of the total project costs and a minimum of €15,000 and a maximum of €50,000. A total of € 400,000 is available in three rounds. The first application period will start on February 15, 2023. The knowledge and experience from the pilots will be widely shared via the digital platform NL Destinations Management.nl.

Criteria

An application for the impulse budget is assessed based on the following criteria:

  • Which aspects of destination management are addressed by the initiative?
  • How does the initiative contribute to wider prosperity and well-being in the area?
  • How does the initiative contribute to the ecological sustainability of the local/regional visitor economy?
  • To what extent is the initiative innovative?
  • To what extent is the initiative applicable to other regions/areas?
  • Which parties (public, private, knowledge institutions) are involved in the initiative?

All applications are assessed by a five-member committee consisting of a representative from EZK, NBTC, provinces, DMOs/CMOs and CELTH. When granting applications, consideration is given to both the spread of the initiatives across the entire country and the variety of pilots in the field of various aspects of destination management. Cooperation between different regions with similar requests for help is an advantage. If the available budget for an application period is not sufficient to honour all applications, applications that best meet the criteria set will be given priority.

More information

More information about the conditions and the link to the application form on the NBTC site (in Dutch): https://www.nbtc.nl/nl/site/artikel/impulsbudget.htm