TTNQ | Borders reopening a wish come true

CityLife Business

TTNQ
Borders reopening a wish come true

MARK OLSEN
: (07) 4015 1201
: ceo@ttnq.org.au

Chief Executive Officer
Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ)

Our New Year’s wish has finally come true with the opening of international borders.

The Tropical North Queensland tourism industry has been waiting for two very long years to get back to the business of bringing international visitors to see the Great Barrier Reef and the world’s oldest rainforest.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland has been working with our trade and airline partners who now have the confidence to play their role in the return of the $3 million a day international tourism industry.

With our World Heritage areas, rich Indigenous culture and wide open spaces, Tropical North Queensland has the opportunity to lead Australia into a tourism recovery.

Thousands of tourism experiences that have thrilled generations of visitors to Australia will be back in the market again.

We have seen more than $2 billion stripped from our regional economy while international borders were closed and now we can begin the slow and expensive process of rebuilding key markets.

This will require tens of millions of dollars of investment by governments and the industry to get the industry on the road to recovery and drive aviation partnerships while maintaining domestic
share.

TTNQ Chair Ken Chapman and I were fortunate to spend time with the Prime Minister while he was in Cairns and presented him with our program for the international recovery of the destination.

The Prime Minister understood the importance of tourism and its significant contribution to the economy and was well aware of how hard it was hit by the pandemic making it difficult for operators to invest in marketing.

Pre-pandemic the tourism industry injected $1 billion a year in tax revenue into government and we are asking for support to get those industries back out on the road.

We will also be meeting with the relevant Federal Ministers to ensure they too are across the needs of the tourism industry.

A reset of the eligibility for the Business Export Development Grant is needed to allow the businesses with the skills and experience to reconnect with a whole new travel industry across the world.

We also need aviation and marketing support to open the flood gates for a strong 2022 and even stronger 2023 so we step back into something like the world we saw in 2019.