Tourism NI have rejected a bid made for funding in regards to the Ulster Grand Prix and North West 200.
An initial bid for £800,000 had been requested by racing body Revival Racing Ltd which Tourism NI have reported to be over six time that of which was needed back in 2019.
Tourism NI returned a bid which they have stated was a reasonable amount of funding to host both events however ,Revival Racing Ltd have confirmed the Ulster Grand Prix will not go ahead.
In a statement released today (7 March), Tourism NI said,
“Tourism NI has received a request from Revival Racing Ltd seeking funding of £800,000 to stage the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix in 2022. This is over six times the funding provided by Tourism NI to stage the events in 2019.
The Department for the Economy and Department of Finance provided Tourism NI with the necessary approvals in principle to pay out the sum of money requested if Tourism NI was in a position to do so.
The funding request has now been considered by Tourism NI’s board and it concluded that it could not justify the level of funding requested both on financial and legal grounds. Like all public bodies, Tourism NI is operating in a highly constrained budget environment and is considering requests for support for a range of events across Northern Ireland in 2022.
Tourism NI has provided Revival Racing with an indicative offer as to what it could expect to receive and what we believe would be sufficient to allow both the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix to progress this year.
We are disappointed to hear that Revival Racing has decided not to proceed with the Ulster Grand Prix this year.”
The North West 200 is set to go ahead.
