To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment what impact the cancellation of the Tourism Events Fund will have on large events in East Londonderry, such as the International Air-show.

The nature of the Tourism Events Fund is that organisers apply to the fund annually and therefore there is never any guarantee of receiving funding. When applicants apply to the scheme, applications are assessed through a competitive process and therefore there can never be any guarantee of funding.

In the financial year 2014/15 NITB funded 63 National events under the Tourism Events Sponsorship Scheme and 13 International events under the International Tourism Events Fund with a total contribution from NITB of £2.8million.

However based on the information provided by the event organisers, the 76 events funded in 2014 are projected to:

Generate a £12:£1 return for every £1 invested by NITB; and

To attract 2.2m visitors.

I am very keen for events to go ahead with funding, but at present there is not budget available to open a Tourism Event Funding Programme for 2015/16. However, when the 2015/16 budget is known the position will be reviewed.