VisitBritain

Great Gateway Innovation Fund 2026/27

Learn more about this fund which provides financial assistance to marketing activity in your gateway destination.

Photo by: VisitBritain/The Noodles

Location: London, England

A couple travel down an escalator at a train station

The Purpose of the Fund

The fund will provide financial assistance to UK-registered DDPs (England only), LVEPs (England only) or  Regional DMOs (only in Scotland and Wales), to deliver marketing activity in the United States.  

The fund focuses marketing innovation by targeting a specific inbound gateway or region in Great Britain which has a direct port of passenger entry, then encouraging dispersal beyond that point.

Objectives

  1. Drive innovation and collaboration via our regions and raise awareness of Britain through the lens of Starring GREAT Britain.
  2. Encourage partners to collaborate on increasing impact and growing the wider economic impact for that region.
  3. Drive dispersal of the visitor beyond the immediate access/gateway point.
  4. Contribute to VisitBritain’s ROI 15:1 target.

Support

We are looking for you to:

  • Promote and market your gateway/region experiences to an international consumer audience in the USA, and disperse beyond that point
  • Deliver a fully integrated consumer facing marketing campaign (this could include third-party media buy, influencer programme etc.) between October 2026 and March 2027
  • Inspire and rally a) the local industry, b)  secondary destination partners, c) a commercial partner with an airline or airport, to unlock matched investment, to extend the marketing campaign and reach a bigger audience.
  • Contribute 2:1 matched funding, made up of cash and in-kind.
  • Provide post-campaign quantitative evaluation results from the executed marketing activities, including monetary (GBP equivalent) and volume (number) of consumer bookings generated from incremental visitors.

Budget

  • £200,000 in total
  • Matched funding requires 2:1 match. For example VB £200,000  Partner £400,000 made up of a minimum of £100,000 cash to invest in the media plan and £300,000 value in kind (should be consumer facing channels, production costs which will need to be assessed).

The fund will support:

  • Media buy with a third-party media owner (you will need access to a media agency).
  • Development and delivery of an influencer trip from relevant market.
  • B2B2C communication activities.
  • Other third-party marketing costs may be considered at the discretion of VisitBritain (i.e. third-party bespoke email development or targeted data purchase) but approval must be obtained prior to entering into spending commitments with the third party.
  • PR, social media or any agency fees, production of new content/assets etc or any other added costs should not exceed 30% of the total cash budget. 

Criteria will be based on;

  1. Gateway Gap Capacity
  2. Industry partnerships
  3. Marketing, creative and content plans
  4. Objectives and measurement
  5. Resource/expertise 

Timings

  • Register your details to enable you to access and complete the formal application - available now https://grants.visitbritain.org/
  • Formal fund open for applications – w/c 21 Sept 2026 https://grants.visitbritain.org/
  • Closing date for applications - 12:00 (noon) 7 October 2026 (BST)
  • Notification of successful applications – w/c 16 October 2026
  • Live dates between October 2026 - March 2027
  • For further questions please contact [email protected]
  • The GREAT Gateway Innovation Fund 2026/27 is on Find A Grant(opens in a new tab). The Find a Grant service also allows you to search for other government grants.

Application documents

PDF

VisitBritain Creative Guidelines.pdf

Brand guidelines for VisitBritain GREAT campaigns

PDF

GREAT Gateway Innovation Fund 25 26 Prospectus.pdf

This prospectus is for more information on the GREAT Gateway Fund 2025/26.

PDF

Gateway Fund Grant Scheme Guidance for Applicants

This PDF is guidance for applicants to the Gateway Fund Grant Scheme.

Find A Grant

This opportunity is on Find a Grant. Find a Grant is a service that allows you to search government grants.

You can use this service to:
 

  • access government grant funding 
  • search and filter to find a grant that matches your needs
  • find out if you are eligible to apply for a grant
  • find out how to apply for a grant