Changes coming to next year’s Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers after successful COVID-safe event

Toowoomba’s premier tourism event the Carnival of Flowers will feature some major schedule changes next year, after organisers hailed 2020’s event a success despite the impacts of COVID-19.

Sisters Kim Huynh (left) and Lyn Ha in Laurel Bank Park during Carnival of Flowers 2020. Picture: Kevin Farmer

New data presented to the Toowoomba Regional Council has revealed this year’s stripped-back Carnival of Flowers generated nearly $11 million in economic activity for the city, along with more than 64,000 visitor nights.

TCOF event co-ordinator Kate Scott said the right circumstances had combined to boost visitor numbers way above the committee’s initial expectations.

“We absolutely had the perfect storm this year,” she said at the meeting yesterday.

“We had borders were closed and people were bored, JobKeeper had everyone’s bank accounts filled with fuel money and we had kids on holidays that were sick of being at home.

“We had an outdoor event and that made things much easier to make COVID-safe.”

Nearly 200,000 people visited Queens Park and Laurel Bank Park over the 10 days of the carnival, while the new #trEATS food campaign was deemed a success at attracting visitors to participating eateries across the region.

As an example, 20 people went to the Bernborough Tavern in Oakey to try its promotional meal as part of the campaign.

Most numbers were understandably lower than the previous year, including total expenditure (down 69 per cent to $12.7m) and average visitor nights (down 30 per cent to 1.7).

Ms Scott said she and the organising team was planning to stretch the carnival over four weekends in 2021 to better spread out the economic stimulus.

Most notably, the Food and Wine Festival and the Floral Parade will be moved to the second and third weekend respectively.

“Parade road closure requirements are a major impact on the delivery of events and activations in Queens Park, moving the festival away from this weekend will allow for more park access, traffic flow and overall improvement to visitor experiences and business impacts across the CBD areas,” the report said.