1. Objectives
The objectives of the Welland Sport Tourism Fee Rebate Program are:

a) to offer a refund on approved applications to not-for-profit and profit sport organizations for endorsed City owned facility costs, and/or

b) to offer compensation on paid hotel rooms to sport event organizations in Welland, and 

c) to encourage:

1.      Maximization of short term and long term use of all sporting facilities

2.      Balancing Community needs and demands for facilities

3.      Supporting the increase of economic benefits resulting from sporting events in the City of Welland

4.      Supporting event organizations and in particular those that use sporting events to fundraise and reinvest in their own membership (thus helping to grow overall usage levels)

5.      Ensuring quantifiable criteria and assessment procedures are in place to process applications for financial support from the City of Welland

6.      Establishing accountability and reporting procedures to demonstrate the community benefits associated with sport tourism

2. Program Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the program, the following criteria apply:

a) For profit or not-for profit sport event organizers must be able to demonstrate an economic benefit to the City of Welland by providing sufficient information to enable Integrated Services, Recreation & Cultural Services Division to undertake a Sport Tourism Economic Assessment to help quantify the benefits of the event.

b) Events must meet minimum nightly requirements for accommodation at participating overnight providers within the City of Welland. To ensure that some events do not exploit minimum requirement while the majority of participants stay elsewhere in Niagara, the following formula is applied:

Registered participants x 40% = Minimum overnight room eligibility

(Assumes that each participant stays in their own room)

“Participant” means guests from out of town who travel at least 80km one way.

“Spectator” means visitors from out of town who travel at least 80km one way.

For a copy of the complete application, please click here. This application was last updated January 2, 2013.