Tourism funding announced as premier promises to spend big in the Far North

Premier Steven Miles has pledged to shower the Far North with riches, announcing a $10m investment in Tourism Tropical North Queensland to increase domestic and international tourism numbers to the region.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles launches the Labor Party's state election campaign with a function and speeches at the Austal shipyard in the Port of Cairns in Far North Queensland. Queensland Premier Steven Miles addresses the crowd at the Labor Party's campaign launch at the Austal shipyard in Portsmith. Picture: Brendan Radke

Premier Steven Miles has pledged to shower the Far North with riches after announcing a $10m investment in Tourism Tropical North Queensland to increase domestic and international tourism numbers to the region.

The election promise, made at the party’s campaign launch on Saturday, is expected to deliver an extra 200,000 visitors to Queensland.

The funding, delivered over four years, would help an industry that lost $300m as a result of the Far North flood in December and is still recovering from the global pandemic, TTNQ CEO Mark Olsen said.

“This is an international gateway for Australia, driving jobs in Queensland,” Mr Olsen said.

“We’ve had a really tough recovery from the pandemic. We’re still only at 54 per cent of our 2019 international visitor numbers.”

Labor candidate for Mulgrave Richie Bates, Member for Cook Cynthia Lui, Minister for Health Shannon Fentiman, Queensland Premier Steven Miles, Treasurer Cameron Dick, Member for Cairns Michael Healy and Member for Barron River Craig Crawford stand between the giant gantries of a shiplift in the Austal shipyard, Cairns. Picture: Brendan Radke

Ms Olsen acknowledged the role the state government had played in encouraging visitors back to key destinations in recent years through the $200m Aviation Attraction Investment Fund.

“The Great Barrier Reef is worth $6.4bn a year to the communities of Queensland and the economy,” he said.

“We are really excited about seeing international visitation not only recover but grow significantly over the next four years.”

The funding will create $735m in business spending and support another 2185 jobs, the premier said.

“This will deliver more overseas bookings, more leisure and business events, drive global promotion of the Great Barrier Reef, support the growth of First Nations and agritourism products and drive increased cruise passenger numbers,” Mr Miles said.

Investing in Cairns has flow-on benefits for the rest of the Sunshine State, Mr Olsen said.

“More than 84% of international visitors arriving in Tropical North Queensland this year went

on to visit multiple regions in our state, showing that our region is a great partner for other

destinations to drive visitation to Queensland,” he said.

“This commitment will allow the region to keep that momentum going as our international

flights resume in 2025 and to drive demand for strong future growth for Queensland as we

enter the green and gold runway to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

When questioned, Mr Miles said there would be many more announcements in the Far North over the next month, leading into the state election.

“Yes,” he said.

“But it wouldn’t be any fun for either of us if I told you them all today though, would it?”

Cairns is a northern gateway to the world, hosting direct flights to key tourism destinations, including New Zealand, Singapore, Bali, Japan and later this year, Hong Kong.

The Premier also announced a $15m Queensland Seafarers Skills and Jobs Fund while in Portsmith.

Originally published as Tourism funding announced as premier promises to spend big in the Far North