Cairns tourism levy: Far North Queensland businesses need action now

Imagine all it took was a stroke of a politician’s pen to immediately inject $18 million a year — and more — into marketing Far North Queensland tourism without taxpayers footing the bill.

• How FNQ police found killer’s lair
• Fight to protect Cairns suburbs’ wow factor
• What FIFO ban means for FNQ mines

IMAGINE all it took was a stroke of a politician’s pen to immediately inject $18 million a year — and more — into marketing Far North Queensland tourism without taxpayers footing the bill.

It sounds too good to be true, but this is real, ready and rearing for someone with the political appetite to revolutionise what is arguably the region’s most important industry.

The best part — it is so simple.

Never before has there been such a united push behind finally getting a tourism levy established in Far North Queensland.

QLD_CP_NEWS_TOURISM_04JAN18

The FNQ tourism levy would be akin to the European model where a teensy-tiny fee is charged to visitors at their point of accommodation.

For argument’s sake, we will call it $1 a night per person — although in reality it would have to be formulated on a percentage basis, likely 1 per cent of the cost of each night of accommodation.

The levy would be added at the point of sale like the GST, but if for some reason it was overlooked, visitors could be asked to cough up a few parting shekels as they hand in their room keys on the way out the door.

Ratepayers would not pay a cent and the contribution would be so minimal it would not raise an eyebrow among tourists.

But its effect would be astronomical.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s latest annual report shows it operated on a shoestring budget of $8.2 million in 2017-18 — down from $8.5 million the previous year.

The region it covers notches up about 15 million hotel visitor nights a year, plus 3 million or so more nights for people staying in Airbnb and other accommodation.

Going on the $1 per night model, that is an extra $18 million per year going directly to Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s arsenal — more than tripling its current budget.

Take into account the amount of money that could be leveraged from other major businesses agreeing to invest alongside TTNQ and that figure triples or even quadruples.

Then we are looking at considerably more than $50 million a year in new marketing opportunities just by applying this measly $1-a-night tithe on visitors.

Tourists and locals pour onto the Cairns Esplanade taking in the beautiful Cairns winter weather. The Esplanade board walk. PICTURE: STEWART MCLEAN

TTNQ could afford the best CEO in Australia, a crackshot workforce and a huge amount of new opportunities to attract new flights and visitor markets to experience the most beautiful place on earth.

Of course there would be stringent checks and balances to ensure the organisation was doing its job — and if it was found wanting, the money would be pulled and control measures put in place.

The biggest risk to getting this off the ground is the matter becoming politicised in the lead-up to next year’s Queensland election.

We need both sides of state politics to back this proposal to the hilt.

Both Labor and the LNP have vowed not to introduce any new taxes, and if either wavers it will be ground down to mince meat by the other side.

Austrian tourists Nico Schmidt and Silvia Pilotto in their campervan at the Cairns Sunland Leisure Park, PICTURE: ANNA ROGERS

But this is not Labor or the LNP introducing a new tax.

The only way this can work is for the government of the day to amend the Local Government Act to allow councils to decide whether or not to apply a modest per-night tourism levy on visitors.

It is then up to the councils to decide the next step.

This would not be Labor or the LNP introducing a new tax — it would be politicians putting the partisan nonsense behind them for a moment to allow Far North Queensland to become the master of its own destiny.

This would be a Cairns Regional Council tax, applied not to ratepayers, but to the millions of appreciative tourists coming to our part of the world every year.

The cost would be so minimal it would not price us out of any market.

We do not want a cookie-cutter version of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast models where councils clumsily slug all commercial businesses with a toll whether they are part of the tourism industry or not.

There is only one way this will work — and it will work.

We cannot let this opportunity get bogged down in politics or we will still be whingeing about it in 20 years’ time.

Originally published as Cairns tourism levy: Far North Queensland businesses need action now