Cairns councillors approve $300,000 Tourism Tropical North Queensland funding

Cairns is vying to shoulder out the competition for a headstart in the post-lockdown domestic tourism stakes – but it will not come cheap for ratepayers.

CAIRNS is vying to shoulder out the competition for a headstart in the post-lockdown domestic tourism stakes – but it will not come cheap for ratepayers.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) gets an annual $3.4m injection through various funding agreements with Cairns Regional Council.

Now the council has ticked off a $300,000 ultra-targeted campaign to funnel passengers directly into Cairns Airport.

The deal, ticked off by Wednesday’s council meeting, will hit high-yield markets in South East Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia using retail agencies.

The contestible funding will come from the existing approved $3.4m pool, and will be tied to strict performance measures including a target of achieving $5m of gross sales.

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Each campaign will last at least four weeks, and slow tourism periods will be promoted wherever possible.

“If targets are not met, retail partners will provide additional campaign activity,” a council report stated.

“TTNQ will withhold a portion of payments until targets are met.”

Council economic development and advocacy director Nick Masasso said the industry had noticed a drop-off in passengers through Cairns Airport since Christmas.

“A campaign like this would normally be run by a large extent by tourism (operators) themselves, but certainly their financial capacity to do that following Covid-19 has ben compromised,” he said.

“It’s not normal business as usual … but I think it’s a fit for purpose campaign for where we are now.”

State governments have decided to drop the border restrictions that have been in place since the Covid-19 coronavirus arrived in Australia in 2020, with travellers not requiring Covid-19 PCR tests or border passes, unless travelling to and from Australia. Skye Warren of Smithfield was travelling to Melbourne with her children Sebastian Warren, 8, and Madison Warren, 15, to see family and was pleased to see the reintroduction of unrestricted travel. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mayor Bob Manning said time was of the essence with regions across Australia all vying for market share.

“We’re either the first horse out of the gates and we get the benefits of that,” he said.

“If we’re not, then what we lose you may never get back.

“It’s absolutely necessary, and I take it … TTNQ will be advised pretty quickly and they can get on with starting a plan.

“Because they’ve got work to do. A lot of it.”

Monthly passenger statistics for December show only 53 people came through the international terminal alongside 213,183 domestic travellers.

The latter figure was an 8.2 per cent increase on December 2020 but still a drastic reduction on the 413,137 domestic passengers who came through in December 2019.

This latest push adds to the TTNQ’s recent offer of $100 vouchers for 1000 locals to use at a range of Far Northern tourism experiences with numbers rapidly evaporating.

CLARIFICATION: This story previously stated the $300,000 was on top of the existing $3.4m ratepayer funding when it in fact is part of the existing funding pool.

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Originally published as Cairns councillors approve $300,000 Tourism Tropical North Queensland funding