Ottawa Tourism launching nightlife activity fund

This innovative funding stream is designed to support high-quality, visitor-driven experiences, from arts and culture to indigenous and francophone programming.

Ottawa Tourism is launching a new fund to help grow the city’s nightlife.

Applications for the Destination Development Fund open Tuesday. The fund will provide cash assistance to groups and organizations that need help getting an event or project off the ground.

“There are people who want to create activities in Ottawa for the nightlife. What sometimes is missing for some of them is the money,” Ottawa Tourism director of public affairs, Jérôme Miousse, told CTV Your Morning Ottawa on Monday. “So, at Ottawa Tourism, we decided to allocate some of our destination development funding to help these organizations and these people who have ideas for nightlife to help them bolster their activities with activities that will be high quality and visitor driven in Ottawa.”

Ottawa Tourism says the program is designed to support tourism initiatives that are innovated, sustainable, and permanent or recurring, or that “make a momentous impact on conversations about Ottawa.”

“Of course, we have some priority areas. We want some arts and culture, we’d like to have some Indigenous experiences, experiences that touch official languages, there’s a variety. But anyone can apply as long as it’s visitor driven,” said Miousse.

Ottawa nightlife commissioner Mathieu Grondin told CTV Your Morning Ottawa the city has been moving in the right direction, and now is the time to invest in what works.

“There’s never really any purely tourism products. They’re all like really good local products that people want to come to your city to attend,” he said. “Let’s just think about Bluesfest, for instance, or Escapade. These all started as local activities that turned into something that brings visitors to Ottawa. So, that’s what we want to see in the future.

Grondin said Ottawa’s nightlife is unique, diverse, and accessible.

“You walk around here in the ByWard Market, and you can have a punk bar in front of a country bar and then you have a techno bar, and they’re all localized in the same area. You can walk from one to another and this is great. You compare to other cities and sometimes you need a taxi ride to go across town just to go to another place. I think this is a very valuable asset we have, this diversity, and I think this is what we should keep growing,” he said.

But it’s not just bars, restaurants, and clubs, he added.

“I’m talking about the NCC last year. I’m talking about what they did the night bike ride. This is all part of nightlife too,” Grondin said. “Just stargazing at night can be part of nightlife.”

The Ottawa Tourism Destination Development Fund is open to Ottawa Tourism members, Indigenous businesses, registered and incorporated non-profits, and municipal, national or provincial industry sector groups.

“It’s for projects starting May 2026 until Dec. 31, 2026. Everyone can apply and everyone is welcome to apply,” said Miousse. “We will be evaluating applications based on the criteria we have and based on the priorities we have also that will all be public in the application guide.”

More information can be found on Ottawa Tourism’s website.

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