VisitScotland has announced further details of the Event Industry Support Fund 2, its second round of funding support for the events industry.

£8m of funding will be administered by VisitScotland on behalf of the Scottish government, and comes out of the £104.3m fund announced last week.

The process for delivering the funds has been put together with feedback from the Event Industry Advisory Group, and those who were unsuccessful in the first round of funding in 2020.

The funding will be delivered in two parts – top-up payments to those who received funding in the first round, and then new applicants. Top-up payments do not require an application process, and those eligible for it will be contacted automatically.

The Events Industry Support Fund 2 is for new applicants who were ineligible to apply to the Events Industry Support Fund. The new fund will broaden out the eligibility criteria of the original Events Industry Support Fund to capture many of those event businesses it did not reach the first-time round.

Details on the new application process, including criteria and guidance, will be announced the week commencing 8 February 2021, with applications set to open the week commencing 15 February 2021.

Joss Croft, the CEO of travel trade association UKinbound hailed the fund as a lifeline. “We applaud the Scottish Government for recognising how important these businesses are to Scotland’s economic recovery and taking positive steps to ensure they remain viable for the future,” he said.