Business Events Buoyed By New Government Support

Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) is welcoming news today of Government support for the business events industry, severely impacted by ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

For the first time, business events of over 200 attendees will now be included in the Events Transition Support Payment scheme (ETSP).

BEIA Chief Executive Lisa Hopkins says today's announcement from Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash recognises the high value of the business events industry and gives long-overdue certainty to organisers, venues and clients to help plan ahead.

“We are overjoyed Minister Nash and his team have acknowledged the key role business events will have in New Zealand’s recovery,” she says.

“When a business event is held, it not only brings much-needed contribution to the tourism and hospitality sectors, but also impacts positively on the community. It supports a highly skilled and dedicated supply chain, who have really felt the impact of restrictions over the past couple of years.”

In his announcement, today Minister Nash said, “Business events are an important part of the sector and attract high spending visitors to the regions and main centres. Business events are also a key source of revenue for convention centres and other venues that are not typically used for large-scale events.”

“The scheme effectively sees the government underwrite costs so that organisers of an eligible event can claim 90 per cent of unrecoverable costs if it can’t go ahead due to public health measures for events. It will be valid for events scheduled from 4 April to 31 January 2023,” Lisa Hopkins says.

“The original ETSP scheme was introduced in November 2021 to give event organisers financial certainty to host large scale events such as festivals over summer, but did not include business events.”

Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment will have a new eligibility form online by 1 March and the changes take effect on 4 April 2022.

Business events must have been publicly announced or have been actively in the market prior to 23 January 2022 for events scheduled to begin before 1 July 2022; or at least four months prior to the event date for events scheduled to begin on or after 1 July 2022.

For more information visit the Events Transition Support Payment scheme page on the MBIE website.

For more information on support for smaller events and artists, visit the Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme page on the Ministry of Culture and Heritage website.

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