Inside plan to ensure Whitsundays tourism future
A regional Queensland airport has experienced ‘unbelievable’ growth despite Covid — clocking more than 123,000 passengers and a big revenue jump. Attracting more films and stars like George Clooney and Julia Roberts are among the plans.
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Negotiating with new airline Bonza to cement the Whitsundays as the company’s first launch destination is just one notch in a powerful tool belt building on already impressive growth.
Small businesses in the tropical paradise have suffered greatly during Covid lockdowns and return to strong tourist numbers has been rocky thanks to staff shortages.
But, during the April to June quarter this year, Whitsunday Coast Airport recorded 123,225 passengers which generated revenue of $1,922,123.
Whitsunday Regional Council’s aviation and tourism head Craig Turner said the June quarter revenue was a significant increase of 29.10 per cent on the previous quarter.
“What we’re seeing is normalisation of movements aligned to budget as well as revenue but there are some disruptions around airline performance with regards to on-time performance, unserviceable aircraft … so that’s been one of our biggest challenges for that quarter, trying to ensure that reputationally Whitsunday Coast Airport can distance itself from those mistakes being made by our airline partners,” the chief operating officer told councillors at the Wednesday meeting in Bowen.
More than 100 Whitsunday holidaymakers were forced to sleep on the floor of a ferry terminal, community gym or in the homes of gracious locals after a Jetstar flight from Hamilton Island to Sydney was cancelled in early July.
“It’s difficult, we’re looking to make sure we can work with airlines to solve these problems and protect the reputation of Whitsunday Coast Airport,” Mr Turner said.
“Airline load factors across all airlines and routes averaged 84 per cent, an increase from 76.33 per cent from the previous quarter.
“The Sydney and Melbourne routes saw an increase in load factors averaging 90 per cent, up from 82 per cent.
“For July, we averaged 95.6 per cent for Melbourne and 95 per cent for Sydney.
“When you consider there’s a 4 per cent washout for people who don’t turn up for the actual flight due to traffic delays or whatever, that puts Melbourne at 99 per cent load factor.
“So we are working with other airlines to try to increase capacity out of Melbourne to make sure we really are getting as much out of that market as we possibly can.
“Trading only normalised on December 19 so we’ve really only had trading that hasn’t been totally affected by Covid for just over six months.
“We’ve been able to record though a small deficit for the financial year of $56,000 (which includes an) increase in budgeted depreciation – half a million more than budgeted.
“When you consider the challenges through the first half of the financial year, by reducing expenditure and trying hard to drive revenue, we’ve essentially been able to break even.”
The council heard a recent conference in Gladstone displayed a powerpoint presentation showing the Whitsunday airport was the only regional airport to achieve positive growth.
“In the current economic climate and where we’ve been the past three years, the growth we’ve experienced in the Whitsundays, near 23 per cent growth through Covid, is unbelievable,” Councillor Al Grundy said.
“The work you guys are doing is top notch in helping us achieve those milestones.”
Bonza runway launch party
Budget airline Bonza has picked the Whitsundays for its first flight destination from the 27 routes planned across Australia.
The new airline was set for a meeting with Whitsunday Regional Council last week to talk about “wheels up and a sale date”.
But Mr Turner said the meeting had been delayed until this week when the airline revealed it would have a confirmed date for the launch.
“My expectation is that it is still going to be in the month of September,” Mr Turner said in response to a question from mayor candidate Jan Clifford.
“We have been approved to be the first Bonza flight – Sunshine Coast to Whitsundays.”
Mr Turner said a big event was being planned at Whitsunday Coast Airport and would be an excellent opportunity to showcase the Whitsundays.
“Of the 27 routes announced, for Bonza to choose the Whitsundays says to me we have a very strong relationship and beyond that they recognise the value of our destination,” he said.
“We’re trying to get them to fly the aircraft up full one-way and not fly it back, have it stay on the apron and that night have a runway party to make sure we leverage this national event.”
Attracting film producers
As filming wraps up for Black Snow, a new Stan Original and Screen Australia series filmed in the Whitsundays, the council is hoping to further capitalise on such opportunities.
Mr Turner told councillors the economic benefit from the Black Snow film production, a six-part whoddunit series, was estimated to be $6m for the region.
He said he wanted to show Screen Queensland “locations they don’t know to get more filming in the region”.
Mr Turner said he wanted to show them Bowen River Hotel and lure them away from Cairns rainforests to those in the Whitsundays.
“I'll be working with the economic development team to put together a pitch where we can send them a whole range of locations they actually don’t know exist in the Whitsundays to try and generate more of this into the region,” he said.
The series is expected to air on Stan TV in early 2023.
It comes after George Clooney and Julia Roberts filmed parts of their romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise in the Whitsundays in late 2021.
Production crews were spotted filming on locations across Hamilton Island, including the remote Haslewood Island, luxury Qualia Resort, and tourist hotspot Catseye Beach.
Freight distribution
Whitsunday Coast Airport is just five weeks out from its Freight Distribution Centre being “fully operational”.
The freight hub has reached fruition through a $250,000 economic diversification grant from the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.
The project seeks to provide new economic opportunities for agriculture, tourism and small business through improved market access, freight efficiencies and new business creation.
It is tipped to expand future export markets for existing products — such as tomatoes, capsicum and mangoes — by providing new markets for existing producers, allowing them to expand their local activities.
But it could also develop to provide important infrastructure to support greater agricultural exports from the region – especially once the Urannah Dam project is up and running.
The airport can transport perishable and non-perishable items to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Newcastle and Cairns via air-freight.
Mr Turner said he had now employed a freight officer for the new hub.
“We’re doing on average about 1500kg of live mud crabs per week into Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane markets,” he told the council meeting.
“We haven’t advertised this but once we have it fully operational, I will pull the trigger on marketing, advertising … ready to go. We expect that to be significant.”
Baggage times
Responding to a question from councillors about baggage wait times, Mr Turner said he was having conversations with Virgin and Qantas about improvements.
“While we are having conversations, we are still a way to go in regards to being completely satisfied with the time to get bags out on the Virgin aircraft,” he said.
“The challenges there are that the bags on Virgin (737s) are manually unloaded … whereas Jetstar are done in containers so they are ready to go and they pop them on.
“I think the biggest pinch point there operationally is that all their performances are around the aircraft departing, not arriving.
“So once it touches down, if there’s a further aircraft down at the same time, they will prioritise the departing aircraft, not the arriving aircraft.
“We are consistently having meetings explaining our thoughts around that because ultimately any performance failure at the airport, regardless of who they occur with, we own.”
Rental cars
Rental Car agreement negotiations have been reached with Hertz and Thifty but Avis and Budget are not locked in at the airport.
Mr Turner said there had been a 12-month negotiation and the two remaining companies were “sticking their heels in” over three small points.
“While we’ve agreed on the terms with Avis and Budget, there are still some contractual terms we cannot agree on,” Mr Turner said.
“Unless we can arrive at an agreement, we’ll have to look at a demobilisation plan for them.
“These companies made significant money through Covid and through the airport operation.
“It’s now up to them to make a commercial decision about whether to stay.”
Shute Harbour
A restaurant has been fitted out in the new Shute Harbour Marine Terminal and is expected to open soon.
The new terminal, redeveloped after severe damage from Cyclone Debbie, achieved strong revenue growth during its second quarter of trade since reopening.
Overall revenue increased 70 per cent from the previous quarter, with fuel sales the main revenue contributor.
The terminal also achieved a revenue increase of 30 per cent for 2021-22 against budget.
Mr Turner said he was expecting 40 cruise ships by June 30 this financial year.
Lake Proserpine
Multi-award-winning tourism operator Red Cat Adventures, which operates the popular Wildcat and Thundercat tours in Mackay and the Whitsundays, has unveiled plans to raise the camping profile of Lake Proserpine.
The normally ocean-faring business is steering its attention inland by introducing “glamping” tents at the lake in time for the September school holidays.
Red Cat Adventures director Julie Telford said they would also launch non-motorised watersports on the lake.
Councillors voted unanimously at Wednesday’s meeting to keep rates for camping at Lake Proserpine the same despite the council bearing some cost to do so.
Fees were introduced in April 2021 to make the facility break even — asking adults to pay $8 a night, child $4 and $20 per family (two adults and two children).
“Increasing the camp fees for the 2022-23 financial year was considered, however, the risk of losing momentum by increasing fees was too great,” Mr Turner said.
“It is likely that these fees will be reconsidered for the following financial year.”
Councillor Mike Brunker said it was the most affordable place in the region to take families and keeping camping rates the same was a sensible move.
“People will be happy to know prices are the same,” he said.
Visitor numbers and revenue totals for the June quarter showed strong growth compared to the year prior with $58,108.30 generated from 3125 people.
But Mr Turner said this was not the peak period and he expected this quarter would further increase revenue and visitor numbers.
He said everyone would work hard to get the asset “to its potential”.
Collinsville Information Centre and RV Park
The Collinsville Information Centre and RV Park had 458 vehicles visit during the June
quarter, generating a local spend of $20,437.21.
Mr Turner said the quarter performed “exceptionally well with interstate visitor arrivals” and he expected similar visitation during July and August with the grey nomad marketing mobilising.
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