Cairns tourism companies say $10m investment in TTNQ ‘absolutely critical’ for region’s future
While recovery is still ongoing for many popular tourism attractions in Far North Queensland significantly impacted by Cyclone Jasper, tourist hotspots have said the Labor Party’s $10 million investment is ‘absolutely critical’ for the region’s future.
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A $10m investment in the region’s tourism marketing body is “absolutely critical” to the Far North’s future, according to local operators.
With many tourism businesses having experienced a “satisfying start” to the school holiday period, there is growing optimism for a second influx of visitors, expected from the southern states, to drive even more business in the coming weeks.
Skyrail Rainforest Cableway general manager Richard Berman-Hardman said it’s been a “steady” flow over the last few weeks.
“Overall it’s been a steady-as-she-goes period for us with school holidays being spread out over a number of weeks,” he said.
The eco-tourism scenic gondola ride in Smithfield is a popular destination for tourists as it offers 360 degree views of the lush tropical world heritage-listed rainforest.
“We are also expecting a busy time as the cruise ship season kicks off over the next week, we’re expecting positive numbers out of that segment over the coming season,” Mr Berman-Hardman said.
However, the cableway manager said the region was still recovering from the impacts of natural disasters.
The Labor Party at its campaign launch in Cairns on Saturday pledged $10m over four years to the region’s tourism marketing body, Tourism Tropical North Queensland, if re-elected.
LNP leader David Crisafulli on Monday in Cairns said he supported the work of regional tourism organisations but stopped short of matching the ALP’s pledge.
“Cairns will benefit significantly from any government funding that we can get because we’re still recovering from the impacts of Covid-19 and from the impacts and aftermath of Cyclone Jasper and the floods,” Mr Berman-Hardman said.
“It’s absolutely critical to ensure that school holiday seasons into the future remain buoyant.”
In addition to the strong start in visitor numbers during the Queensland holiday period, the upcoming cruise ship season is expected to further boost tourism, bringing additional travellers to the region.
FNQ restaurateur Fintan Rafferty said currently the CBD was “going quite well”.
“While we’ve had a horrible start to the year, and we need as much [tourism] injection to the town as we can get, it’s great to see the town humming along,” he said.
However, he agreed compared to previous numbers, the turnover in visitors across the last four months hasn’t been “where it needs to be”.
“The last two weeks you can see there has been good activity around the town and hopefully that will continue for another few weeks while families continue on school holidays.”
Meanwhile, up the Captain Cook Highway, Hartley's Crocodile Adventures chief executive Angela Freeman said the adventure park had been pleased with visitor numbers recently.
However, some people were still being deterred by past road closures along the scenic coastal road, she said.
“There's been a lot of negativity around the Captain Cook Hwy closures and people have been concerned if they were going to be able to get up here,” she said.
“There’s still the odd person who thinks the road’s closed and may be concerned about booking holidays up here, but regardless we’ve been very happy with visitor numbers.”
Ms Freeman said the outlook was good overall as other states such as Tasmania, South Australia, and New South Wales started their school holidays this week.
“There is a reasonable trade still to come to Cairns with the interstate holidays now starting,” she said.
TTNQ chief executive Mark Olsen said across the last 12 months, 84 per cent of international travellers who came to the region were now going to other parts of Australia and other parts of Queensland.
“We have 2500 different bookable experiences, who spend their time and money in the international markets, growing the reputation of Australia,” he said, adding that if you went to tourism trade shows, the Australian contingent was dominated by operators from Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.
Mr Olsen said TTNQ would love to see bipartisan support for his organisation’s call for an additional $10m in funding.
He said overall Cairns was down 10 to 15 per cent in visitation numbers, compared to 2022 and 2023 when the region had “really strong” domestic visitation.
“International is climbing back, but it’s still only halfway back to where it was in 2019. What we’re seeing at the moment in occupancy is about 10 per cent down across the region compared to previous years,” he said.
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