In Your Wildest Dreams
A groundswell starts far offshore, long before anyone standing on the beach can see it. By the time it arrives it has picked up enough energy to change the whole shape of the day.
That is roughly how new tourism experiences work here too. The ones that end up defining a season usually started as somebody’s untested idea two or three years earlier, with no budget behind it.
The Ucluelet Groundswell Fund is Tourism Ucluelet’s 2026 tourism business grant program, and it exists to put money behind those ideas at the stage where money is hardest to find. In 2026 we are supporting two new tourism experiences, products, or events with up to $10,000 each in first-year funding, along with a marketing package to help them launch.
Applications close Friday, November 13, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.
This is seed funding for the first year of implementation. It is designed to help you test, refine, and establish an experience that has the potential to keep running after the initial investment is spent.
It is not operating money. It is not a marketing top-up for something you already run. It is for the thing that does not exist yet.
Your project needs to be a new tourism product, experience, or event entering its first year of operation. That can mean something entirely new, or a meaningful expansion of an existing offering that introduces distinct programming, a new delivery method, or a new seasonal opportunity. Adding a second departure time to an existing tour is not a new product. Building a winter version of that tour, with different content, a different guide structure, and a reason for people to book a room in February, might well be.
To be eligible you must:
You will also need to demonstrate that the project is visitor facing, that it is designed to generate overnight visitation, that it can show long-term viability beyond the funding period, and that it delivers anticipated economic, social, and ecological benefit to the community.
Four priorities shape what we are looking for, and three of them are scored directly. Projects that:
The second and third of those are what criterion 3 in the rubric below assesses, and it is worth 15 percent of the total score.
Two things about how that criterion works, because they matter:
It scores strength of fit to one or more priorities, not a checklist. A project built entirely around wellness is not penalised for having no cultural component, and a project that touches none of the three is not disqualified, it simply does not score on this criterion.
Where a project involves Indigenous cultural content or knowledge, what is assessed is the quality of the partnership and the consent behind it, not the presence of cultural content. A cultural element added to an unrelated project without demonstrated permission and protocol will score low, not high. If you are considering a partnership of this kind and are not sure where to start, talk to us before you apply.
Applications are assessed by the Events and Experiences Fund Committee using a weighted rubric, with final approval by the Tourism Ucluelet Board of Directors. The weights are published here on purpose, so you can put your effort where it counts:
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| 1. Potential to increase off-season or overnight visitation, length of stay, and repeat travel | 30% |
| 2. Incorporation of sustainable or regenerative practices | 25% |
| 3. Alignment with destination development priorities: Indigenous cultural tourism, health and wellness, nature-based experience | 15% |
| 4. Clarity and effectiveness of tactics and delivery approach | 10% |
| 5. Originality and innovation of the event or experience | 10% |
| 6. Evidence of partnership and collaboration | 10% |
Over half the available score sits in the first two rows. If your application does not have a convincing answer for when in the calendar this happens, and how it treats the place it happens in, the rest will not carry it.
Eligible:
Ineligible:
Alongside the funding, each recipient gets a marketing package from Tourism Ucluelet:
Funding is issued as a single lump-sum payment following Board approval, a signed funding agreement, and submission of insurance documentation where applicable. Stacking with Tourism Ucluelet’s other grant programs is permitted. Approved funds must be spent by March 31, 2027 unless otherwise approved.
Successful applicants sign a funding agreement and commit to a short list of requirements:
On approval you will receive a personalized digital folder containing every template, agreement, and reporting document you need. That folder is where reporting materials, financial documentation, and post-event photos get submitted, so nothing lives in a lost email thread.
| Milestone / Stage | Date / Details |
|---|---|
| Applications open | October 14, 2026 |
| Application deadline | November 13, 2026, 11:59pm PT |
| Committee review | Week of November 16, 2026 |
| Board review | November 21, 2026 |
| Applicants notified | November 25, 2026 |
| Funds released | Two to four weeks after formal approval and signed agreement |
| Funds spent by | March 31, 2027 |
All applicants are notified within two weeks of the Board meeting at which their application was reviewed. Outcomes are full approval, partial approval, or denial.
Applications are submitted online. The form takes most applicants about an hour, and it saves as you go, so you can start it and come back.
Before you begin, have these ready:
You do not need insurance documentation to apply. That is collected after approval, before funds are released.
The template totals itself, warns you if your request goes over $10,000, and lists every eligible and ineligible cost category on the same sheet. Filling it in is the fastest way to confirm your project is a fit before you write anything else.
If you have an idea and you are not certain it fits, get in touch before the deadline rather than after it.
Nick Curry (he/him)
Tourism Development Specialist, Tourism Ucluelet
community@discoverucluelet.com
250 Main Street #1, Ucluelet, BC
Tourism Ucluelet is honoured to operate on the traditional territory of the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ, Ucluelet First Nation. We recognize that they have been the caretakers of this land since time immemorial, and that Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ have deep ancestral and contemporary connections to this geographical area.