WELCOME TO IN TOUCH WITH TTNQ
Happy New Year to all our members and industry partners.
We have hit the ground running here at TTNQ with the India mission just ahead, a group of 32 European media coming here next week, business planning underway as well as all the planning and preparations for the huge number of activities ahead in 2007. Our focus for growth is definitely on our international markets. We have certainly achieved good figures on the domestic front in recent times, but have to remember the impact of Cyclone Larry on the 2006 figures and be ever mindful of the declining number of Australians taking holidays and the increasing number of those who do choosing to go overseas. We have the opportunity to explore new markets such as India and China and as you will read later in In Touch we welcome David Rose to head up a new marketing section established specifically to do this. Meanwhile we remain very active in our well established markets of North America, UK, Europe, Japan and New Zealand and have seen some good results from many of these in recent times.
We also have several new staff members and new Board members for 2007 and I take this opportunity to welcome them all and look forward to their fresh ideas and input.
I look forward to working with you all again this year as we implement the many marketing activities strategically planned to ensure our region remains Australia’s tropical destination of choice for holiday and business tourism visitors alike.
Meanwhile you can do something to help get the Tropical North on the map, or actually on the Monopoly Board. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the destinations in the running for inclusion in a revamped Australian version of Monopoly, the first update in its 25 year history. The new edition will be launched in June 2007 to coincide with the game’s 25th anniversary in Australia. Until 10 February 2007 you can vote for your favourite region in each state by visiting www.monopoly.com.au so please take a minute to do your bit for our wonderful Great Barrier Reef.
Rob Giason
Chief Executive Officer
INDIA MISSION
Rob Giason and Elizabeth Webb will be joined by 12 TNQ operators on the Queensland on Tour India Mission commencing next week. The region’s industry has been active in this new market for the past few years and activity is now stepping up. Rob was invited by the Queensland Minister for Tourism Margaret Keech to accompany her on the trip which should provide useful fact-finding and contact development opportunities. From there TTNQ will work with airline and industry partners to ensure we have the connectivity, products and services this market demands.
JAPAN UPDATE
Haruhiko (Harry) Niihori conducted a very successful round of sales calls in December in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka meeting with key industry representatives and finalising Team Cairns promotional activities. There was plenty of constructive discussion with airlines, wholesalers and travel agents for Cairns and the region. Jetstar has begun their PR activity in Osaka in mid December and the TTNQ/ TQ joint tactical campaign for promotion Jetstar Cairns service will start in April. Currently TTNQ continues to work closely with TQ on Jetstar issues in the marketplace.
EUROPEAN MEDIA IN TNQ
Twenty-six European media representatives arrive here from Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden on Australia Day for Queensland on Stage. They will experience the destination on the diverse itineraries prepared by TTNQ’s Donna Gray, with great support from many members. Please note all offers for this famil are now closed.
VIRGIN BLUE HIGH PERFORMERS HERE
Ten high performing agents from Our Vacation Centre on the Gold Coast arrived here on the weekend for the first ever Virgin Blue overnight mystery famil which took them to Angsana Resort & Spa for a site inspection, followed by an overnight experience at Green Island Resort. Thanks to the Quicksilver Group of Companies, Angsana Resort & Spa, International Limousines and Acacia Limousines for their support of this opportunity to showcase the region to this high yielding group. The agents were amazed at the quality tropical moments packed into such a quick trip. This was the first of many overnight mystery famils with agents from around the country to be rewarded for their efforts with similar trips.
TTNQ BOARD MEMBERS WELCOMED
TTNQ welcomes new members to its Board this year. With the sad passing of Ulrich Leinichen late last year, Ian MacLaughlin has been appointed Tablelands Director. Ian owns the Australian Coffee Centre, is Chairman of Tourism Tropical Tablelands. Todd Parker of Parker Travel Collection replaces Bob Shaw as a General Director. Bob resigned from the Board following the sale of his Palm Cove property. The third addition is Andrew Steel owner of Hot Air Ballooning whose wealth of experience includes expertise in the new markets of China and India.
TTNQ has also appointed Rodger Robertson as a Director. Rodger is a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Aviation at the University of New South Wales. He has had over 30 years experience at Qantas and 10 years experience as an aviation consultant and University lecturer.
THREE WELCOMES AND A FAREWELL OR TWO FOR TTNQ
Since the beginning of the year TTNQ has welcomed three new staff members:
WELCOME TO:
David Rose, Director of Strategy & New Markets
After a successful career in newspaper and broadcast journalism, David transferred his skills to the travel and tourism sector, with Northwest Airlines, the Australian State Tourism Organisations of Tourism NSW and Tourism Tasmania, and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade). David then returned to the UK to work as the Managing Director of one of the country’s leading destination marketing companies. More recently he has provided consultancy advice for a range of clients in the Middle East, including the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Abu Dhabi Airports Company and Dubai World Central, the world’s largest airport which is currently under construction in the United Arab Emirates.
Niaomi McSwiney , Membership Development Executive
Niaomi is well known to our Leisure Marketing Department and to many in the industry as she has previously worked with Backpackers World Travel, Coral Sea Diving Company, Deep Sea Divers Den, P & O Resorts. Niaomi worked as a Gateway Discovery Visitor Information Centre volunteer in 2000 while she completed her Diplomas in Tourism in Operations and Marketing and Product Development at the Tropical North Queensland TAFE.
Val Shields, Gateway Discovery Centre Manager
Val brings a wealth of travel and tourism experience to her role having worked in marketing and guest relations positions for Sunlover Cruises, in various roles for Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines and Ansett Corporate and for Harvey World Travel’s wholesale arm, then known as Escape Holidays and later as Harvey Holidays. Val also ran her own 200 seat restaurant in Hervey Bay for five years.
FAREWELL TO:
Karen Green who leaves the position of Gateway Discovery Centre Manager to pursue further study. Everyone at TTNQ wishes Karen all the best and thanks her for the great job she has done in the VIC for the past 10 months. She leaves the Centre with a record number of volunteers trained and registered for service.
And
Ken Norman who is leaving his position as TTNQ’s Director of Destination Development after many years with Tourism Tropical North Queensland to accept an offer as General Manager of Events NQ. This is an exciting new opportunity for Ken to return to an area of great passion for him in Events and Events Management. Everyone at TTNQ thanks Ken for his years of loyal dedication and service to TTNQ, and wish him all the very best in his new role heading up Events NQ.
IPAT- BENCHMARKING FOR BETTER BUSINESS
Information Performance Analyser for Tourism (IPAT) will be rolled out in the coming weeks and we urge you to take advantage of this free online business benchmarking tool that will assist you in making better business decisions. Not only does IPAT provide essential performance information, it will provide a reliable and accurate picture of your industry sector across the region. IPAT can be used to inform many of your business decisions as it enables real-time tracking of industry performance. IPAT allows you immediate access to your results, and to compare them with an aggregated data set from other businesses within your sector. By monitoring results daily, changes in performance month to month and changes over a year, you can assess the impacts of significant events or advertising/marketing campaigns on your individual business and industry sector, as they actually occur.
Additional benefits are:
- Free: It costs you nothing to join IPAT.
- Easy: only 2-4 standard business performance questions are asked
- Quick: it takes only a few minutes to enter data. The questions you are required to complete are tailored to suit your industry sector.
- Generates user-friendly tables and charts so that performance information and trends can be clearly interpreted and analysed.
- Your individual data is confidential – only you can see it.
To ensure the success of IPAT, we need the participation of as many operators as possible and the message is simple – the more operators that participate, the more accurate and reliable the data. To make IPAT a great asset to your individual business, and for the TTNQ region, register your interest to
Ros Anderson
Research Officer
Tourism Tropical North Queensland
rosalind.anderson@tnq.org.au
BOOK TROPICAL AUSTRALIA LAUDED
The Book Tropical Australia online booking system is now up and running for many properties across the Tropical North and as Marcus Brady of Undara Experience explains, it is definitely benefiting business:
Just a note to say thanks for all your assistance and support with the Book Tropical Australia booking system!
Although Undara had a very informative website, we could not accept online bookings. We were excited to start using Book Tropical Australia technology to enhance our online presence and receive direct internet bookings. Our staff love it because the client has used the website for all the information they need and then they commit to their options on line, so it saves a lot of time as no long follow up is needed. A definite bonus is that 100% of the money goes into our bank account when the booking is made.
It’s made a huge and immediate impact on our accommodation and tour bookings – with bookings coming in daily! This impact has been particularly noted during the shoulder period and we have bookings as far in advance as September – all through BTA.
Your technical support has been first-class, too. Thank you!
Marcus Brady
Sales and Marketing Manager
Undara Experience
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TTNQ WELCOMES NEW & RETURNING MEMBERS
Palm Cove Marketing - a new tourism organisation that will be focussing on developing Palm Cove as Australia 's luxury spa capital.
OK Gifts Shop (Aust) - retail store selling small gifts, T-shirts, leather and sheepskin goods, food and opal jewellery.
Morgan Freeman Promotions – provides a weekly tourist brochure distribution service to accommodation, tour-desks, airport etc. throughout Cairns, Kuranda, the Northern Beaches and Port Douglas, Mission Beach, Babinda and Innisfail.
Grunt Labour Services - specialises in temporary and permanent recruitment in tourism and hospitality as well as industrial, agricultural and its professional arm GPS Recruitment specialises in permanent commercial and professional recruitment.
Gary’s Australian Rainforest Safari – providing Group Tours of Daintree National Park, Cooktown, Bloomfield, Kuranda and Hartley 's Creek Crocodile Adventures.
Freeman Productions – providing consultancy services in tourism attraction design and operation including implementation of the Federal Government’s Indigenous Business Ready program.
Elysium Apartments – Palm Cove’s newest luxury 1,2 & 3 bedroom apartments.
Castaways Backpackers – a small friendly family run hostel near Cairns city centre
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ACCREDITATION FOR HERBERTON VIC
The Herberton Mining and Information Centre has just become an officially accredited Visitor Information Centre, passing a stringent accreditation process which took over six months to complete and required the compilation of an ongoing business plan module. The centre’s 24 staff and volunteers are celebrating their newly awarded accreditation, which enables them to officially take tour bookings and be featured in travel magazine listings and RACQ maps as an official VIC. Locals and visitors to the Jacks Road centre will soon see the distinctive ‘Yellow ‘i’ official visitor information signage appear atop the building. For more information tel: 40963474.
TA & TQ MARKET BRIEFINGS
Tuesday 6 February 2007, Cairns Convention Centre
The TA updates will be held in the morning and the TQ updates in the afternoon. For more information and registrations please click here.
Should you have any questions regarding Market Briefings 2007 please contact Alex Mallard on (02) 9361 1347 or email: amallard@tourism.australia.com
ATEC SYDNEY SHOWCASE 2007
13 February 2007
Sydney Tower Restaurant’s 360 Degrees Bar and Dining
EXCELLENT MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES
MEETING & INCENTIVE PLANNERS GUIDE
TTNQ member business tourism product is invited to participate in the Cairns and Region Convention Bureau’s Meeting and Incentive Planners Guide 2007 -2008. This guide is the bible for event organisers planning a business event in our region. There are opportunities to advertise and provide information including pre and post touring options, incentives and events, testimonials and case studies and photos. You can use this template to submit relevant editorial for consideration. Advertising bookings close 14 February or when capacity is reached so don’t miss out. For more information please contact Debra Woffenden at Australian Tourist Publications by email debraw@welcometocairns.com.au or phone 4031 3161.
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AUSTRALIAN EVENTS EXPO
CRCB will be attending the inaugural Australian Events Expo in Sydney in May 2007. This is a revamp of the event previously known as Sydney on Sale. CRCB will be coordinating a Tropical North destinational stand and interested members are invited to contact angela.uhlig@tnq.org.au and visit www.AustralianEventsExpo.com
GATEWAY PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS
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Business planning is a key focus for the TTNQ team this month.
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Rob, David & Dion met with Tourism Palm Cove to discuss upcoming marketing opportunities.
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Rob and John will meet with Tourism Queensland to provide a joint presentation with Townsville Enterprise on the Great Tropical Drive
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David is settling into his new role and together with Liz is working with the Korean Tourism Queensland office on the 2007 Korean charter flights and the Team Cairns campaigns for China and Hong Kong.
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Sharyn is planning for the April North America mission and finialising the Great Barrier Reef brochure for the US market, Jana is getting ready for OzTalk New Zealand and Donna is busy preparing itineraries for 26 European media coming here for the Queensland On Stage event at the end of the month as well as other itineraries for journalists coming to experience Australia’s Tropical Drive in June.
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CRCB are issuing letters to operators who participated in the Business Events Survey which show their market share. They are also planning for a Sell TNQ debrief meeting to be held in February.
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TTNQ has renewed its commitment to the region’s Community Recovery Group, led by Department of Communities.
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Several TTNQ volunteers and staff were among those who enjoyed a Fitzroy Island Agent’s Day courtesy of Raging Thunder late last year. Sea kayaking was one activity although this photo shows the group aboard a slightly more high speed vessel!
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Helen was part of a local media famil hosted by Quicksilver Connections to brush up on knowledge of beautiful Green Island Resort.
Congratulations to:
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Continental Micronesia on the successful completion of their International Air Transport Association (IATA) Operational Safety Audit and entry into the IOSA Registry.
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The Lakes Cairns Resort & Spa and Hot Air Cairns, both named among Expedia.com.au’s world top 10 romantic destinations.
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Gateway Discovery Centre volunteer Dianne Smith, nominated in the Cairns Tourism Association’s Annual Kamsler Awards to be held on 3 February 2007.
- JCU has appointed Associate Professor Dr Darren Lee-Ross as director of its new Centre for Tourism and Hospitality to be opened in Cairns this year.
- Chef Unni has joined the team at the All Seasons Cairns Gateway Resort’s Pickled Frog after 16 years as an Executive Chef with P&O. Unni brings his experience in all types of cuisines and authentic Indian dishes from his homeland Mumbai are sure to be a feature of the Pickled Frog’s Thursday night Indian curry buffet.
- Garrie Douglas is the new marketing coordinator of Tropical Tablelands Tourism and can be contacted at garrie@athertontablelands.com
- Ocean Hotels have appointed Michelle Behsman as Sales and Marketing Manager - Cape Tribulation Resorts.
- WANTED: Tour Desk and Administration Co-ordinator for Australian Tourist Publications To manage tour desk, provide sales follow up and administration support with regard to ATP publications and varied tasks. The position is currently casual and the working hours will be from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday starting mid to late January 2007. The successful applicant will be experienced in the tourism industry, have strong sales, administration and computer skills. A “yes I can” attitude is essential along with being well organised, confident and friendly. Interested parties please send your resume to Debra Woffenden debraw@welcometocairns.com.au Applications will be treated confidentially.
QUICKSILVER LAUNCHES SILVERSWIFT
The Quicksilver Group of Companies launched its new Cairns-based adventure snorkel at the end of 2006. The new Silverswift - a brand new 29 metre, $3.9 million luxury motor catamaran - replaces the existing vessel to align with her sister ship Silversonic, which was launched last year in Port Douglas.
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YUNGABURRA MOUNTAIN SPA & RETREAT
The opening of this new five star day spa late in 2006 is set to add a new dimension to Tableland getaways. The spa is owned and operated by award winning Eden House proprietors Gordon and Susan Chuck who are well known in the region’s tourism industry. It is adjacent to Eden House and features a unique heritage style that complements the existing property and the village of Yungaburra. Don’t just tell your guests about this great new product, try it for yourself. TTNQ members are invited to enjoy a special offer of 2 nights in a Luxury Villa including tropical breakfast, port and chocolates, spa treatments to the value of $100 per couple for $350 per couple. Bookings Essential - Call Susie on 4095 2511.
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TAFE SERVES UP 2007
Tropical North Queensland TAFE is preparing to kick off 2007 with a wide array of Tourism and Hospitality courses to help tropical northerners realise their study or career goals. Over 20 full-time, part-time, external or online programs are now available at Certificate II – Diploma level. Courses include front office, hotel software, workplace hygiene, hospitality, tourism, meetings and events, and high school programs. For more information contact TAFE on 1300 656 959.
EVENTS NQ BRIDAL EXPO 2007
11am – 4pm Sunday 18 February 456 Sheridan Street
Back to top
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Rob Giason was In the Hot Seat in this month’s City Life Magazine.
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John McIntyre gave the Great Tropical Drive perspective on an article in the The Australian on indigenous tourism in our region by local reporter Ian Gerard.
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The Great Tropical Drive also featured in Alpha Magazine article and in a two-part series published in the Leeds Evening Post.
“Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
GOOD NEWS STORIES OF GREAT TROPICAL MOMENTS
The unique features of Tableland property Fur n Feathers Rainforest Treehouses left a lasting impression on these two families of seasoned travelers who thoroughly enjoyed the experience:
Dear Pam, Greg and kids...
We cannot tell you how many, many times we have reflected on our wonderful stay in the treehouse! The kids have said over and over, "I wish we could go back to the tree house" or "When are we going to the treehouse again?" It always comes up when we are planning any trip--too bad that Australia is a bit "out-of-the-way" for our usual trips home to the states or we 'd stop by every time!
Thank you for providing such a tasteful, private, wonderful accommodation! It is a place I have no hesitation in recommending to anyone heading to your beautiful country! We wish you the best holiday season as well! If I can get my act together, I will send you a DVD of photos from your place that we put to music--the kids watch it all the time. It really was a magical trip. Probably the kids ' favorite trip of the eight countries we visited this year!
Again, thanks and best regards,
Shelly and Doran and the six Johnson kids (Ryan, Malia, Gavin, Derek, Spencer and Annalee)
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Hi Pam
Remember us… Ralph, Dympna, Caitlin, Esme & Patrick from England - Stayed with you last June/July…
Well we made it all around the world (10 countries about 30 hotels/B&B’s in all) and Fur’n’Feathers still stands out as an absolute highlight.
The story about little Patrick being chased by the cassowary (remember we burst into your office screaming just before we left!) is still our absolute top story of the whole trip… obviously we have exaggerated it even further with each telling and it has now become an Epic Tale worthy of a Legend.
Anyway hope you are well and rest assured we recommend Fur’n’Feathers to anyone we meet travelling in the Northern Queensland area.
Cheers, Ralph
If you have a good news story or have achieved a recent success please send your information to Helen Laird.
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