Council lays out five-year plan for Carnival of Flowers
THE future of the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers has been laid out by the council, which endorsed the tourism event’s five year strategic plan.
Toowoomba
Don't miss out on the headlines from Toowoomba. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE future of the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers has been laid out by the council, which endorsed the major tourism event's five year strategic plan this week.
The report by TRC events co-ordinator Kate Scott, delivered to councillors this morning, outlined four aspects for the TRC to focus on between now and 2024.
These included growing the profile of the event, creating sustainability and increasing the tourism value for the wider region.
Ms Scott said the event would focus on attracting mid-level social media influencers, music festival lovers and foodies as part of the growing target markets.
"TCOF is no longer seen as a 'grey heads in garden beds' event - the diverse program of events and experiences on offer in recent years has achieved visitation increases across all ages and household budgets demographics," the report said.
"TCOF achieved 294,000 attendees in 2019 and over the next five years will work on securing a higher percentage of first-time visitors to the event."
"Tourism value increases will be achieved by building itineraries that include regional TCOF activations to disperse visitors across the council area.
"TCOF is Queensland's largest attended event and has a key part to play in bringing leisure and event focused visitors to Queensland.
"This is reflected in the Tourism and Events Queensland partnership priorities."
Now in its 71st year, the carnival attracts 300,000 visitors every year and injects $40 million into the area.
The carnival runs alongside the hugely-popular Chronicle Garden Competition, which will this year be run virtually as the "Chronicle Garden for Good" event to meet the challenges of COVID-19.