Allbout Cairns: Tourism centre opens on Grafton Street

A new Cairns sustainable tourism enterprise promises to help micro businesses a leg up and focus on the community.

A NEW tour drop-in centre in the CBD is forging a path to sustainable tourism.

The Allbout Cairns centre at 58 Grafton St came about after Chelsea Handley of Barefoot Tours and Barry “Baz” Goes of Cairns Canyoning met at a virtual tourism forum during the COVID pandemic.

“Operators up and down the east coast of Australia were going through the same problems,” Mr Goes said.

“Myself and Chelsea were the only ones in Cairns and we started chatting about joining forces.”

Barefoot Tours and Cairns Canyoning have joined forces to start All About Cairns, a co operative hub for Cairns tour companies to work as a collective. Bazz Goes, Marcio Garbuio, Chelsea Handley and Keanu Otoke-Hunt work together out of the new hub on Grafton Street. Picture: Brendan Radke

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The tourism co-operative focuses on micro businesses and sustainable tourism.

The concept is not a new one globally. Since 2003, the UK’s Travel Foundation charity has been fostering sustainable travel in the Caribbean and Europe.

Mr Goes said the co-op would reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.

“We can reduce overhead costs by doing it together,” he said. “For guests, this is a central meeting point, like the Reef Fleet Terminal.

“We want this to be for land-based operators.”

The new enterprise, registered as a charity, will organise community enrichment events facilitated by members.

“Part of their contracts would be to get involved in these events, we’d go out and put the tours on,” Ms Handley said. “We will do the organisation but we need their participation.

“We are looking at getting 30 operators and we’ll be putting on one event per month.”

She said the central location would encourage visitors to walk in the CBD and meet other tourism operators.

“If every operator is going around picking up their own people it would add to their carbon footprint,” Ms Handley said.

More businesses are expected to be brought into the co-operative after the first month.

“The response has been great, operators are realising the importance of putting themselves out there as a united group,” she said. “We would like to advocate in the future, if this can work really well we can open them down the east coast.

“I think this will be really good for operators, to create a sustainable tourism community.

“There is so much to offer, we have to create a positive atmosphere and get involved together.”

Mr Goes said the response had been “fantastic”.

One or two people each day have been stopping to chat about it, he said

Originally published as Allbout Cairns: Tourism centre opens on Grafton Street