CEO & Board Updates

Budget night last week was one of the more memorable in my career as I received the call from Senators Don Farrell and Nita Green finally confirming that our destination would receive the promised $15 million in international destination marketing funds over the next three years.

A strong majority of local government representatives have put their support behind further investigation of an opt-in visitor levy for local governments with 85% of attendees at the Queensland Local Government Conference voting for it in Cairns yesterday.

Visitors with accessibility challenges account for some 15-20% of global tourism. Research by Tourism Australia has shown that accessible tourism can be a game changer for destinations that will assist with post-pandemic recovery by building industry resilience.

TTNQ and 22 member businesses were the largest contingent at Tourism Australia’s Marketplace North America this month, meeting with 80 trade representatives to promote Cairns & Great Barrier Reef.

Tropical North Queensland has a starring role in a new South Korean reality television series and Irish star Ronan Keating will be bringing his family to Port Douglas to showcase the destination through his social media channels as part of our international marketing.

Strong spending by visitors has brought a record $3 billion tourism expenditure boost to the Tropical North Queensland economy.

Cairns has earned the reputation as the best place in the world for wildlife viewing and the third best for diving and snorkelling, according to the latest Destination Think! Tourism Sentiment Index.

The TTNQ sales and marketing team and more than 70 member products flew the flag for Cairns & Great Barrier Reef at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Sydney this week.

Easter was busy across the region with 94,000 passengers passing through Cairns Airport last week and 77,000 during the first week of the Queensland school holidays. Cairns has not seen this domestic air capacity since 2018.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given high praise to TTNQ when outlining why our destination marketing organisation has received one-quarter of the $60 million Federal funding allocated to international tourism recovery.

There was a collective sigh of relief when Australia’s international borders opened on Monday allowing the tourism industry to plan ahead with the certainty we have been craving over the past two years.

International education and working holiday makers are back and leisure travel is looking tantalising close as the tourism industry waits for the Federal Government to expand the number of visa categories allowed to enter Australia.

Queensland’s barriers have finally lifted for domestic travel and international visitation is just around the corner as our industry nervously waits to gauge the consumer confidence in travel for early 2022.

Congratulations to the winners and finalists at the Queensland Tourism Awards in Brisbane last week. It was inspiring to see 21 Tropical North Queensland products had made the enormous effort to enter the awards during one of the most challenging years our industry has faced.

The Premier’s announcement of 17 December as the date for the reopening of Queensland’s borders is welcome news. It will give confidence to consumers and a compelling reason for the community to be vaccinated.

Will a Tropical North Queensland tourism operator win the RACQ People’s Choice Awards in the Queensland Tourism Awards this year? I hope so and we can help by voting for them.

TTNQ is urging the State and Federal Governments to work together on wage support assistance similar to the JobSaver program offered by the New South Wales Government in conjunction with the Commonwealth.

TTNQ recognises the impact that school holiday lockdowns have caused Cairns & Great Barrier Reef tourism operators with losses of $3-5 million a day in the region.

Domestic interest in Cairns & Great Barrier Reef has never been stronger as we enter the traditional peak season for welcoming our southern friends escaping their cold winter.

The Federal Government’s additional $7.7 million in targeted support to promote Cairns & Great Barrier Reef as a year-round destination to domestic visitors will significantly increase the domestic marketing power of our destination.

Domestic demand for Cairns & Great Barrier Reef is at an all-time high with more than 60,000 people expected through Cairns Airport this week after a very successful Easter brought 21,000 arrivals our way.

The Cairns Holiday Dollars campaign has turned the spotlight on Cairns & Great Barrier Reef with almost 100,000 people registering in just 48 hours and more than $4.6 million in publicity generated for the destination.