The provincial government is investing more than $9.3 million to support business events and “workforce support initiatives” over the next two years.
According to a statement released on Thursday (Feb. 10), the goal of the investment is to restart the business events and conferences sector.
The new Business Events and Conferences Restart Fund will provide up to $5 million this year and up to $3 million next year to help restart business travel.
“British Columbia’s meetings, conferences, and events sector sustains a significant network of businesses across the province and is critical to the complete rebuild of our provincial economy,” said Ingrid Jarrett, president and CEO, British Columbia Hotel Association.
The investment aims to attract international business visitors who tend to spend more, stay longer and visit smaller BC destinations once their business is complete.
“Restarting business events also provides greater economic benefits for the services that support the sector, such as food services, audio-visual companies, event rental companies, event planners, and transportation companies that will subsequently benefit from the return of large conferences to the province,” explained the news release.
The business events market is reporting 85 -100% in lost revenue since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to the release.
More support for other events and tourism education and skills training will be announced in the future.
