Tourism Whitsundays uses relocation allowance to entice applicants for vacant CEO position

The Whitsundays’ leading tourism organisation is using a somewhat counterintuitive strategy to recruit a ‘forward thinking, commercially driven’ candidate to replace outgoing CEO Natassia Wheeler.

Tourism Whitsundays is on the look out for a new CEO to help promote picturesque locations such as Hill Inlet, pictured. Supplied

The organisation responsible for promoting the Whitsundays as a must-see tourism destination seems to think it will have a hard time convincing the right person to relocate to the area to take up its top job.

Tourism Whitsundays is pulling out all the stops to fill its CEO vacancy before Natassia Wheeler exits the role in September, not only promising candidates an attractive salary and superannuation, but also “living away from home and remote area allowances”.

A TW spokesperson said the organisation had seen “strong interest” in the position, with almost 100 applications submitted since an advertisement went up online earlier this month.

TW hopes to announce Ms Wheeler’s replacement “as soon as possible” after the July 31 application closing date, but will not make its selection until the completion of interviews with short-listed candidates, the spokesperson said.

A job advertisement posted on Seek describes the CEO position as “a rare opportunity to lead one of the world’s most well-known tourism destinations” towards goals including returning overnight visitor expenditure and total visitation to better than pre Covid-19 and Tropical Cyclone Debbie figures.

Desirable candidates will have strong negotiation skills, and “be able to identify and pursue new business ventures, strategise and innovate at every chance,” the ad reads.

TW will farewell Ms Wheeler at its annual general meeting on September 17.